Star Wars Ultimates
by Titanmaster 117
Summary: When a strange craft crash lands onto Coruscant, the Jedi are forced to return to Mortis, and a new war ignites from the ashes of an old civilisation. New enemies and allies emerge, and the fine line between the light and the dark is blurred and defiled, as the galaxy is forever changed, by the age of the Forever Wars (OCs, OOCs and major character deaths. You have been warned).
1. Prologue: Our words hang in the air

_**I do not own SWTCW. all rights go to Lucasfilms, Disney, and their respective companies.**_

* * *

 _These days, our war is shifting to something more... Well, something else. Our kind- Both of our kind- Are slowly and blissfully shuttling towards a quiet, and peaceful genocide. As long as we keep up this whole barely-a-war thing, soon, everything will just, I don't know, stop. This world can't sustain us. Not anymore. Where we were once star empires, that had spread across the universe, now, we're just remnants of bare millions, slumbering towards extinction on our old home world._

 _Well, I suppose our end won't come to that. I'm guessing that we'll end up just wiping each other out real soon, ending our millennia long feud. Maybe a few nukes will be launched, and we'll end up as radioactive skeletons. Maybe one of us will march on the other, and we'll all end up dying in blood and laser fire. Not sure if it would be ironic, but whatever. It doesn't really matter._

 _Honestly, it's really starting to look like the latter (Both sides killing each other in one last hoorah) is gonna surpass the former. The Crymeia and their CIA guys have been stalking us at Eden's Gate and attacking Dreakon Outpost with their raiding parties for about a year now, waiting to see which side is gonna strike the final, finishing blow. This whole 'Cold war phase' (High Council's words, not mine) or whatever, is gonna blow up in our faces. Again. Like it always does. And this little incident is only gonna speed things up._

 _Hell, this time it wasn't technically our fault. Rather it was Pacem's fault. He and his band of idiotic dreamers just had to do exactly what we said they shouldn't do, and now Shockwave's forces killed them all. Like we said they would._

 _Okay, it was technically partly- Partly\- Our fault. We did ignore his, and his cronies', warnings. And we didn't really stop them. So now it's on us. Again._

 _Idiots. Unbelievable idiots._

 _Not sure whom I'm referring to, now. Me, Riker and the HC, or Pacem._

 _I wonder if Pacem thought he was doing the right thing. I hope not, because that would make his actions a little bit easier to understand._

 _I suppose it doesn't really matter in the end, does it? Pacem's probably dead, his objective's most likely failed, and we're still stuck in the same godforsaken situation as we have been for the last year or so._

 _Couldn't be goddam happier._

 _That was sarcasm by the way. I dabble. More now than I have done before._

 _Still, I can't help but get this nagging feeling in the back of my head, that things are only gonna get worse, because of Pacem- I mean, they've always gotten worse. Our kinds hasn't been in a perpetual state of conflict for, oh, about, maybe... 30'100 years or so, and not learn that- but when we see the consequences of our latest actions, and inactions..._

 _Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there, I guess._


	2. Homecoming-part 1: This calamitous life

**19BBY**

* * *

 _"I'm telling you, brother, I'm so bored. I get that guarding the capitol is important, but I just wish- Wait, what's that up there?"_  
 **ARF Trooper CT-1045 'Hound'- Courscant Guard**

* * *

 **C** **oruscant  
500 Republica**

As the sun set on the glistening towers of Coruscant, the sky turned to a beautiful shade of orange and pink, and the great towers that pierced the heavens in twain began to light up, each one acting as its own sun for the people that dwelled and moved down below. Many lanes of speeders began to light up, with flashes of blue, red, green and yellow speeding above the people down below. on the streets, people of the more, degenerate walks of life began to emerge, conducting their usual routines of thieving and crime on those more fortunate than them, then retreating back to their humble abodes in the underworld. Nightclubs, gentlemen's clubs, bars, and all other kinds of drinking and pleasure establishments became packs with people of all different walks of life, while many others stayed content with being on the civilised side of society.

However, within this shining utopia, there existed great turmoil and angst. The Galactic Republic was neck deep in war with the Separatist Alliance with advances and retreats and stalemates continuously reshaping the territories between them, which was not helped by their growing operations against hostile crime syndicates and cartels (The Mandalore Incident helped to give the Jedi the excuse to begin operations and missions against the crime families of the Outer Rim, like the Pyke Syndicate and the Black Sun and the Zahn Consortium, though this has only put a further strain on the Republic's resources). The relentless hordes of the CIS' droid armies continued to march and trample on all that opposed them, enslaving and executing anyone that got in their way, with war crimes that would make the most horrific and disgusting pirates and warlords over the course of history, like Xim the Despot and the Hutts and Guttako gasp in abject horror, and only the brave Jedi and their loyal armies of clones stood in the way of the Republic, and total destruction.

At least, that was what the general public was fed. Republic propaganda experts were quite good at their jobs. In actuality, while the Separatists had committed war crimes, like terrorist attacks, biological and chemical warfare, and involvement in the slave trade, propaganda experts inflated and exaggerated them to make them seem more atrocious and horrific than the reality of the situation actually was.

And even then, the fighters of the Republic were not free from their own fair share of atrocities and war crimes. The people of the Republic did not need to know about the various assassination missions authorised by Republic Intelligence, or the Jedi that went rogue and killed their own men, or the various Republic PDF and judicial splinter cells that became their own despots or fell in line with the various criminal empires of the Outer Rim, or the sponsored terrorist attacks on sympathetic Separatist worlds, or the Senate's dealings with the Hutts and their high level of warmongering and corruption, or the mass executions of Separatist loyalists by the Outlands Region Security Force, or the various coups of neutral governments set up by Republic agents and loyalists, with military dictatorships and regents set up to be loyal to the Republic and would lay down their world for Coruscant when the time came.

Yep, the people didn't need to know all of that inconsequential nonsense.

Because Coruscant was the capital world of the Republic, security was heavily extensive. Not that it wasn't before, but now it was one step away from martial law. On the ground, Clone Troopers bearing the markings of the Coruscant Guard were constantly on patrol, watching out for the slightest hint of Separatist activity. AT-RTs marched along the roads and walkways, while police droids and Speeder Bikes kept a constant look on the Speeder ways. Military checkpoints, mandatory blackouts, and acts of police brutality against supposed Separatist sympathisers was more common place than it should be, and many people were constantly being arrested on suspicion of crimes that they didn't commit.

Sometimes, those people would never return. These were dark days, and it seemed like those whom one could once trust were now their own foes, breeding indifference and violence into Coruscant, and the Republic as a whole.

In the skies of Coruscant, Victory and Venator-class star destroyers, Arquitens-class light cruisers, and C70 Consular-class cruisers filed the skies, with V-Wings, ARC-170s, and Z-95 Starfighters ducking between the massive ships, ready to respond to anything that they could expect. Many of the common folk saw these ships as signs of hope and security, but the rest knew them for what they truly were: Weapons. Weapons made and used by those whom do not have the people's best in their minds.

If only they knew what was coming.

In a posh senate building known as the 500 Republica, occupied by some of the most culturally and politically elite of the Galactic Republic, in the apartment room of one Senator Padme Amidala of Naboo, famed Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker stood on the balcony, gazing at the sunset, wondering about how beautiful it would look if there wasn't a Venator star destroyer parked in the way.

Suddenly, he felt two slender arms hug him from behind, and a soft head rest upon his shoulder. Anakin smiled, knowing who it was.

"You know", purred Padme, "I wish we could just stay like this forever."

"Me too, angel", replied Anakin with a smile, "But duty always calls. Me and Ahsoka will be leaving for Cato Neimoidia in a few days to help defend it against a Separatist invasion force."

"Duty calls for me too", said Padme with a sad, yet warm smile, "The senate's in a gridlock, again, and I feel that without my help, they'll end up doing something insane."

"I just wish we could leave", said Anakin with a sad smile, "We could just abandon it all. I could leave the order, you could leave the senate, and we could live out the rest of our days on Naboo, like we always wanted."

Anakin then looked at Padme with a slightly distressed look on his face, "Then again, were would the Jedi be without their chosen one, or the senate without their best senator?"

"Well", started Padme with a grin on her face, "The Jedi may not have their best warrior, but you'll always be my chosen one."

They both then heard a chorus of beeps and whistles, and looked behind them to see R2-D2 and C3PO standing at the balcony entrance.

"R2 is quite right, miss Padme", said 3PO, "That was rather cliché."

"Oh yeah", replied Anakin with a look of interest on his face, "And what would you have said?"

R2 then emitted a series of beeps and whirls, that raised the eyebrows of both Padme and Anakin.

"Oh stop it, you!" exclaimed 3PO, who then proceeded to kick R2, "Where did you hear such voyeuristic language?"

R2 then let out a few more beeps, in an exited fashion.

"You've been hanging out with Qutee", exclaimed 3PO, "Well I must say, she must be quite the eccentric little astrodroid, if I do say so myself."

"Those two", sighed Anakin, with a look of slight exasperation on his face.

Suddenly, he felt something, a shift in the force. subtle enough to be unnoticed, but it was still there. he closed his eyes for a second to try and determine what it was, but what it was eluded him.

Padme noticed Anakin's concerned face, and said, "Ani, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, Padme", replied Anakin, "Something just feels off in the forc-"

Then it came down on him. The shift in the force suddenly felt so great that it was almost pain inducing. In fact, it was pain inducing. Flashes of images, sensations, and feelings began to bombard him, like a bomber dropping its payload on to his mind. Feelings of fear, anger, sadness, guilt, and regret began to override his emotions, and sensations of pain, suffering and rage began to overtake him. Worse yet, he began to see images of people dying, children suffering, soldiers dying in the most gory fashions, their bodies being torn apart in the most horrific ways, The force being used in ways he could not even imagine, a planet where the surface had cracked apart, and it's broken land masses were being held together by cable and wiring leaching from the core of the planet, and a figure, cloaked in darkness, and eyes of red, but with a heart of grey choices, and regret, a figure with purple eyes, and a heart of sorrow, and a figure with green eyes, and a heart of guilt, weighed down by the failings of the past. All of them against an angel, cloaked in white, yet it had a heart of darkness, sin, and evil.

Once the pain had stopped, it took Anakin a few seconds to process that he was leaning on the balcony railing for support. It took him a few more seconds to realise that Padme was shaking him back to consciousness.

"Ani!" cried Padme in confusion and fear, "What's wrong?"

"The force", weakly replied Anakin, "It's...convulsing...like it's in pain...every Jedi on Coruscant must have felt tha-"

Suddenly, a loud bang could be heard, along with a bright flash of blue light. Anakin and Padme quickly turned around to see what it was, assuming it was just thunder, but found that there were no storm clouds in the sky.

Suddenly, a massive blue shard of electricity appeared in the sky, unleashing a massive fireball, that tumbled out of the sky. As soon as the blue shard of electricity closed, what looked like a thruster engine flew off of the fireball, and pierced through the Venator that was blocking out the sun, colliding with its reactor, and detonating within the ship. The Venator then exploded into two, illuminating everything near it, and dropped like a fly onto the ground in front of the 500 Republica, exploding into a fireball.

The falling fireball, meanwhile, smashed right through a Gozanti cruiser, snapping it in two, then collided with the back engines of a CR90 corvette, sending it spinning out of control, and forcing it to collide into one of the many skyscrapers, becoming permanently lodged in the building. The fireball then disappeared behind the skyscrapers, and hit the ground hard. The massive explosion that followed lit up the sky, consuming several towers, and causing one of the huge skyscrapers to topple over and fall to the ground, and one tower to collide with another tower, balancing perfectly together.

Padme could only gape in awe and terror at the level of destruction. In the space of less than 5 minutes, thousands must have died, and in the space of the next 5 or so minutes, it seemed that thousands more will die. She looked to her side to look at Anakin, only to see that he and R2 were heading towards his Jedi Interceptor.

"Ani!" cried Padme, "Where are you going?"

"I've got to get to that crash site", replied Anakin in a worried tone, "There could be people there that need help!"

"R-right", said Padme in the same worried tone, "I'll see what I can do from here."

As an alarm started blaring in the building, and Padme's handmaidens and a few Senate Commandos stormed into her apartment, desperate to protect the senator and former queen, Anakin said, "Stay safe, angel", and took off, heading towards the crash site. Padme merely held her stomach and sighed to herself.

This was going to be a long week.

* * *

In his interceptor, Anakin ducked between the various speeders that were panicking on where to go, and continued flying towards the crash site. Suddenly, his communicator started ringing, and when he picked up, a hologram of Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared.

 _"Anakin"_ , exclaimed Obi-Wan with an expression of concern on his face, _"Where are you?"_

"I'm heading towards a crash site, Obi-Wan", explained Anakin, "Something appeared out of nowhere an-

 _"Yes Anakin, I saw it"_ , sighed Obi-Wan, _"Everyone saw it. Anakin, the force-"_

"You felt it too?"

 _"Every Jedi on Coruscant must've felt it. The force, it was like it was in pain. Like it was, not dying, more like..."_

"it was being pulled apart. thrashed around, and dissected, to find out what to throw away, and what to keep."

 _"That doesn't matter now. What matters is what killed thousands of people in the space of a few minutes. I'm heading to the crash site now, with a few others, we'll meet you there. Don't do anything reckless."_

"Do you even know me Obi-Wan?" said Anakin with a grin on his face a he cut off the transmission.

Soon, he arrived at the crash site, which had become a large crater, with the strange object in the middle of it. As he and R2 got out of the interceptor, Anakin noticed that the Coruscant Guard had already arrived. AT-RTs modified with firefighting equipment were busy dousing the flames, and Clone Troopers keeping a check on civilians, and in sniper positions, DC-15As and DC-15Ss aimed at the large object.

Now that he had landed, Anakin could get a clear look at the object at the centre of the crater. It looked like a starship, but was unlike any design he had seen before. Through the extensive scorch marks and damage, he could see that it was a bulbous like ship, about light cruiser size. Maybe about slightly bigger than a CR90, and slightly wider. At the top of the ship was a small fin, that extended from the front to the back, like the fin at the top of a phase-one clone trooper's helmet, but slightly smaller in comparison. At the sides of the ship, there was one stubby wing on each side, with a strange cylinder like object at the end of it, and a short barrel at the front end of it, which Anakin assumed was a blaster cannon of sorts. At the front of the ship, was a large window, which Anakin assumed was the bridge, and through the middle of the ship was a large line, where laid several smaller cylinder like objects, which Anakin also assumed were blaster cannons. At the front of the ship, near its bottom, there seemed to be a large anti-ship cannon, and at the back, there seemed to be at least three large thrusters, with four smaller thrusters near them. On the ship, there appeared to be grey and green markings, but it was hard to see through all of the scorching, and there were several parts of the ship which had green lighting, which kept flashing on and off at random, indicating that there was some power on the ship.

Anakin then spotted Commander Thire talking to another clone trooper, in Bomb Disposal colours, and decided to ask him what he knew.

"Commander", said Anakin as he approached Commander Thire, "What do we know about that ship?"

"Nothing much, general", replied Thire as he turned to face Anakin, "We don't know who made it, who it belongs to, or even what it's purpose is. We're treating it as hostile though."

"Do we know if anybody in that thing is still alive?"

"No sir, but I think its safe to assume that there are none."

Anakin then felt something. Something that was coming from inside the ship. a beacon? a signal? No, something else...

A life force.

"There's someone in there", said Anakin.

"Are you sure sir", asked Commander Thire.

"yes Thire, I can feel it. I'm going in."

Anakin then jumped into the air, landing right on top of the strange ship, then jumped through a hole, and disappeared. A Coruscant Guard ARF trooper then looked at Thire.

"Did he just..."

"from what I've heard, Hunter, he does this stuff all the time.

* * *

The first thing that Anakin noticed when he landed on his two feet, was that he landed in something squishy. When he looked down, he saw that he had landed in the entrails of a humanoid being. He quickly jumped back, and took in what he had seen. The humanoid was of a species that he did not recognise, it wore strange grey and green armour, and welded a strange rifle of a make that he didn't recognise either. Weirder still, the humanoids blood and organs were blue, not red.

Anakin quickly looked away from the corpse, and around his surroundings. He was inside a large corridor, and along one side of the corridor, was a large door, which had a sign over it, in a language he couldn't understand. In the corridor, was more bodies. half of them were humanoids that wore the grey and green armour, and had blue blood. some of those humanoids he could recognise. There was a Trandoshan, a Rodian, and a Snivvian, but the others, he couldn't recognise. What disturbed him the most about them was the fact that they looked like they were in their early to late teens, with so much promise in their lives, all gone. The rest of the corpses, he found even more troubling.

They were Separatist droids, but they were somehow different. They had additional armour plates added to them, and were completely black, with red markings. What else was weird was that black liquid seemed to be seeping from the droids, like blood out of a wound. The Separatist corpses were mostly B1s, but there were 2 B2 droids as well, and there was also a dead Crab Droid in the doorway, that bore the same markings. The door kept repeatedly slamming into the dead Crab Droid cutting into it's armour, until suddenly, sparks flew from the door sides, and it stopped moving, its lights going out.

Anakin jumped on top of the Crab Droid, and climbed through the door, coming into a large room. At the front of the room, there was a large chair, with six metal beams around it that stretched up to the ceiling, forming a hexagon like centre. Near a large cracked window, several smaller chairs stood near computers, with a few of those chairs with bodies in them, bleeding all over the computers, while near the sides of the room, there were rectangular shaped consoles, all of them with one or two bodies on them. In the walls and ceiling there were several separatist boarding pods jammed in and unloaded, while there was also a Separatist Vulture Droid smashed into the wall, but this one had spikes coming out of its legs, and a long fin on its head.

What really unsettled Anakin was the amount of bodies that was in the room. There were at least over a dozen corpses spread out across the large room, with half of them being these new Separatist droids, and the other half being this entirely new faction. There were at least two more Crab Droids, one of them being cut in half, seeping black liquid, and another one stuffed in one of the Separatist landing pods. There were at least several more B1 droid corpses, all of them seeping black liquid, while several bodies of the new faction laid slain as well, all in varying forms of dismemberment.

Stepping over the bodies, Anakin assumed that this was the main bridge, and walked towards the large chair. When he reached the main chair, he found a reptilian humanoid sitting in the chair, with its throat sliced wide open, and blood coating its chest.

Before Anakin could vomit at the grotesque show in front of him, his comlink began to chirp, to which he quickly replied, "This is Anakin."

 _"Anakin"_ , replied obi-wan on the other end, " _I'm at the crash site. Where are you?"_

"I'm, um, in the crash site."

 _"Wha-Anakin, I told you not to do anything reckless!"_

"Master, everything in here is dead. This isn't recklessness, this is looking for surv-"

Suddenly, Anakin felt a metal hand clamp around his throat from behind, and lifted him up from his feet. Anakin began grasping at his throat for air, but was quickly tossed to the other side of the room, colliding head first with the metal wall, and landing straight on a female humanoid body. Anakin quickly flipped himself around to see who his attacker was, and was astonished by what he saw.

A few feet away from him stood a barely active Magnaguard droid, covered in black and red markings. The left side of its head had been torn off, leaving its inner wring exposed, and its left optic was dangling by a wire. Its left arm had been torn off by its hinges, leaving only a stump, and the armour on its left side of the body had all come off, revealing black veins, with some of them torn, leaking black liquid. On the left side of its leg, there was a huge cut, with what looked like an organic, yet metal scab grown over it. On its right breast plate, there was a human skull drawn on it, and on its right arm, there appeared to be a wrist rocket, that dangled on a few wires, and on its head, there was a large scar, that covered its right optic. Its left side was completely covered in black liquid, and in its right hand, was what looked like the hilt of an energy sword.

The Magnaguard then tilted its head to the right, looking at Skywalker.

Then it screamed.

* * *

"Anakin! Anakin!" exasperated Obi-Wan, "Blast it! what's he done now?"

"Sir", said Commander Cody, who stood next to Obi-Wan, "This is a crashed ship, and general Skywalker is a Jedi. I doubt that he couldn't have gotten into too much trouble-"

The sound of an animalistic roar broke their trails of thought.

"You really shouldn't say that stuff about general Skywalker", sighed Captain Rex, "He's somehow always able to find trouble where he shouldn't."

"Rex, Cody, with me. Lets get Anakin out of whatever mess he's gotten himself in. again", said Obi-Wan, as they, Thire, a few other troopers, and an AT-RT charged down the flaming crater, to the crashed ship.

* * *

As the droid charged at him, Anakin tried to use the force to push the droid away, but then, several laser markers beamed from the droids right eye, quickly scanning what looked like a wave of energy. Within a split second, the droid had scanned the force energy that Anakin had released, and quickly jumped over it, unharmed. Anakin then released another burst of energy, but the droid then quickly scanned it again, and barrel rolled to the side, landed right next to Anakin, and punched him in the gut, winding him. The droid then grabbed Anakin by his right arm, wheeled back, and threw him against the wall, like a child throwing a tantrum.

The Magnaguard then flipped Anakin over, pressed its right foot against his stomach, and looked him dead in the eye, it's cold red eye staring into his soul.

"Y-you... Are... Skywalker... Y-y-you... Killed... Mortis... You... Killed... My home..."

All Anakin could do was stare wide eyed at the droid. How in the force could it know about Mortis? How could it be his home?

Suddenly, the Magnaguards energy sword lit up, revealing a red blade. The droid then flipped it around like a knife, and lifted it above its head.

"The punishment... For your sin... Is death..."

Suddenly, blue laser fire began to fill the room, as Rex, Cody, and several Coruscant Guard Clone Troopers began to fire at the Magnaguard. The droid flipped around and responded by firing its wrist rocket at the clones, taking out 3 CG clones and turning them into a fine red mist, but Obi-Wan responded by cutting the droid in half.

Lengthways.

As the droid fell to the ground, black liquid draining from it's corpse like a tap, Rex and Cody helped Anakin up, while Thire and the remaining CG Clone Troopers secured the room and began to spread across the rest of the corpse filled ship, while Obi-Wan quickly inspected the droid, then got up.

"Anakin, what happened", asked Obi-Wan, "Are you alright?"

All Anakin could say was...

"Mortis...it called Mortis it's home..."

As Rex and Cody helped Anakin move to an exit that they had made, and Thire and his men began to sweep the ship, all Obi-Wan could do was stroke his chin and say...

"What have we gotten ourselves into now?"


	3. Homecoming-part 2: Speak memory

_"Casualty reports- Clones included- are in the hundreds... Thousands... The Senate's gonna want answers, sir, and I've still got no idea how a literal bomb somehow got through our defence grid."  
_ **Extract from a conversation between Officer Honor Salima and Admiral Tarkin**

* * *

 **Agamar**

On the surface of Agamar, deep within CIS space, a Separatist supply ship was patiently waiting for orders, its armour rusting in the sun, yet still glistening brightly, as if it was newly mint, and straight out of the dry-docks. At the helm of the supply ship, stood the Super Tactical Droid, General Kalani.

If droids like Kalani could understand frustration, then maybe he would admit that he was feeling it. Since the failed attempt to keep Onderon in the fold, he and the droids under his command have received no new orders from High Command, or even any updates on the war as a whole. He was beginning to feel abandoned by his superiors, who simply seemed to have left his ship to rust.

Was this punishment for his failure at Onderon? It would seem logical. Sometimes, the best kind of punishment was ostracism, so maybe Count Dooku was excluding him from the war until a certain time, where he had time to reflect and learn from his failure. But what was more logical was that Dooku has simply forgotten all about him, and had no idea that he even existed anymore.

That, to Kalani, was the worst kind of torture.

Suddenly, a massive influx of data began to fill Kalani's head, causing him to temporarily shut down. While he was 'asleep', mass amounts of data began enter his brain from an unknown source, and then, just like that, that same overload of data quickly began to disappear, leaving behind small pieces of info, data, and coding.

When Kalani awoke, he looked at his internal clock, and found that only a few minutes had passed. He then looked around the bridge, and saw that several pilot droids and other B1 droids had also been subject to the strange influx of data. Even his own droid commander, B1-268 was picking himself off of the ground. He then decided to pause for a moment, to take in the pointless chatter of the droids.

"ERROR. ERROR. REBOOTING."

"Err, what just happened?"

"Beats me. Go check if we were just cyber attacked."

"Roger roger."

"All systems seem operative... with coordinates to the 6th fleet over Raxus logged in?"

"I fell in an awkward position and now my leg is behind my head and I don't think its meant to do that."

Kalani then looked at B1-268, who had now gotten to his feet.

"B1-268, order all droids out on patrol to return to the ship, and set course for Raxus. We are to take command of the 6th fleet, then depart to the Chrelythiumn system."

"Roger roger", replied B1-268, as he walked to the main pilots chair.

If Kalani could smile, he would. that mass data influx had given him something he had not felt in a long while...

A purpose.

[[[[[]]]]]

 **Coruscant**

 **Republic Medical Centre.**

"It's unlike anything I've- we've seen before", said Kix as he spoke to Obi-Wan, Rex, Mace windu and Yoda and Plo Koon over hologram, and Anakin, who was laying in a bed, with a bandage over the top of his head. They were all currently in a patients room in the Republic Medical Centre, with the lights out, and the blinds down, the holograms acting as the only source of light.

"How so", asked Windu over the hologram.

"All of the organic corpses on the ship were made up of different species- most of which I don't even recognise- but they all seem to have the same bodily and chemical makeup in them. They seem to share the same types of organs, blood types, and genetic makeup. Not only that, but they seem to all lack certain organs. There's no intestines, no waste disposal organs, no sexual reproductive organs. I just don't understand how they work."

"What- _nrgh_ \- what about the droids?" asked Anakin, as he tried to get comfortable in his bed, "One of them was able to get the jump on me, even half intact, and it even registered in the force as alive." He'd look at them himself, but Kix and Obi-Wan weren't letting him leave until they could make sure that he hadn't suffered any other injuries, hence the meeting in the hospital room.

"Our scientists and technicians are having a look at them", replied Obi-Wan, "But they can't make heads or tails of them either. These droids are incredibly advanced. from what the scientists have told me, their armour is denser than any standard armour we have now, and their droid brains are incredibly advanced. They also seem to have organic veins inside them, to transport what we assume is blood across their bodies, and what seems to be a substitute for a heart."

"The death toll, what about?" asked Yoda through the hologram.

"I've read the reports", said Anakin with a sombre tone in his voice, "It's estimated to be about 9,000 now, until they find more bodies."

"This has to be the work of the Separatists", said Windu, "Only Dooku would do something this cowardly."

"With all due respect, sir", chimed in Rex, "I saw the bodies of the Droids and people in that ship, and I didn't recognise the markings of any of them. Plus with what General Kenobi said, these aren't regular clankers."

"I agree", said Obi-Wan, "Not even the Separatists have advancements in droid technology that goes this far. Unless the Techno Union are preforming experiments. Plus the ship did come down in a fireball, so I would assume that it didn't have much control over where or how it landed."

"Where did the ship come from", asked Plo Koon, "It didn't appear on any scanners."

"When I saw it, it just appeared in the sky", said Anakin, "Like it just Hyperspaced right next to the planet."

"Either way, the senate isn't going to want to hear our findings", said Windu, "They're already in emergency session about how to deal with this."

"They're not going to get anything done, you know", replied Obi-Wan, "They don't even have any solid evidence to prove that it was the Separatists."

"Not until tomorrow", corrected Plo, "The Chancellor will most likely give out the findings of our scientists to the senators to... force a vote."

"Well, maybe it's a good thing", replied Anakin, "Then the senators might be able to agree on something."

"I'm not so sure about that", said Windu, "This is the Senate we're talking about."

"Hmm, discuss the best course of action tomorrow, we will", said Yoda, "When the Senate has made a decision, act accordingly, we will."

As the lights turned back on, the holograms dissipated, and Rex and Kix left the room, Anakin grabbed Obi-Wan by the sleeve of his robe.

"Master, is Pad-" he hesitated, Is Senator Amidala okay?"

Obi-Wan looked at him, then rolled his eyes, "Senator Amidala is fine. She's probably in the Senate right now. In fact, she called me earlier to see if _you_ were alright."

Anakin then looked to the side, then back at Obi-Wan, "What about Ahsoka?"

Obi-Wan then looked through the blinds, and then back at Anakin, "Well, you can ask her yourself."

As Obi-Wan walked through the door,Ahsoka barged in, looked at Anakin, and smiled, "Master, you're okay!"

Anakin just gave her a slightly confused smile, as he said, "Well of course, Snips. It's gonna take a lot more than a bump to the head to kill me. Now lava on the other hand..."

"I heard about what happened at the crash site. You running of into an unknown ship which just dropped out of the sky. You should've at least waited for, well, anyone before doing something so reckless."

"When did you suddenly become so protective? I've done more dangerous things before. Besides, it's the master's job to worry about the Padawan, not the other way around."

"I'm not being protective. I just remembered how important you were to me, and I wanted to keep you safe."

As Ahsoka kept talking, Anakin let his mind wonder, thought of something, then decided that it was foolish, and kept talking to Ahsoka for the rest of the day.

[[[[[]]]]]

 **The next day**

 **Jedi Temple**

 **Yoda's chamber**

As Yoda meditated in his chamber, he sensed an all too familiar presence approaching, though it felt troubled with something.

"In, come Skywalker", said Yoda, as the door slid open, and Anakin walked in, the bandage over his head removed, leaving a small bruise, "Troubled, you seem."

As Anakin sat down, he began to speak, "It's about, well, what happened yesterday. Before the ship appeared, the force felt like it was, well being torn apart. Like it was immense pain."

"Hmm, felt it too, I did", replied Yoda, "Like taken off of the face of existence in one swoop, more than a billion souls were."

"Obi-Wan said he felt it too. As well as ever Jedi on Coruscant."

"True, this is."

"Then you also saw the visions."

"True, this is. Images of horror and darkness, I saw."

"So did I."

"...Not the only thing you want to talk about, it is."

"The droid that I encountered in the ship... it said Mortis. It... it called it it's home."

Yoda's eyes widened slightly, as he replied, "Mortis was destroyed, you and Obi-Wan said."

"Obi-Wan and I thought it was a possibility, and the droid did say that I killed it, so I guess it's true. I just don't understand how a droid knew about it."

"Hmm, more to this mystery, there is, than meets the eye."

A hologram then appeared on the holo-projector, showing the image of Mace Windu, "Master Yoda, you are needed in the war chamber. You too, young Skywalker."

Yoda then turned off the projector, got of his seat, and started walking towards the door, "Come, Young Skywalker. A situation to solve, we have."

[[[[[]]]]]

 **War Chamber**

As Anakin and Yoda entered the war chamber, he saw that Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, Windu, and Plo Koon were standing around the main holo-projector in person, while Captain Rex, Commander Cody, Commander Wolffe, Private Switch, and Arc Trooper Fives stood next to them in hologram.

"'Bout time you showed up, Skyguy", said Ahsoka as she looked at Anakin, as he walked down the steps, and stood next to Ahsoka.

"Come on, Snips", said Anakin with a playful smirk, "Professionally late is always the most classy way to make an entrance."

"Since when did you care about being classy?" chuckled Ahsoka.

They then noticed Windu, who was looking at them with a serious face.

"If you two are done", said Windu, who then turned to the hologram of Switch, "Private Switch found something in the ship wreckage."

"Well, sir", began Switch, who pressed a button on his comlink on his arm, "Less found, more like stumbled on by accident."

An image of a large room then appeared on the holo-projector, along with several individuals scattered around it. Anakin recognised it as the control room of the ship, and the individuals as the organic people that he had seen on the bridge as well, before they were corpses.

"We found this footage when we were trying to examine the ships main bridge", continued Switch, "We think that its security footage detailing the ships last moments. It gets, um, pretty graphic..."

Seeing Switch's hesitation, Anakin stated, "If it gives us some clues as to what happened on that ship Switch, we need to see it."

"I agree", said Plo Koon, "It would be best if we reviewed this footage now, so we can see what we are up against."

"Alright then, playing now."

The footage then began to play, and the people in the footage began to run around the control room franticly, shouting orders to each other, and people at the computers frantically reviewing holograms of information. Suddenly, a Vulture Droid smashed through one of the walls, impaling one of the people in the room on one of its legs, sending their guts everywhere, and causing one of the crew members to breakdown, fall to the ground, and start screaming. Then, one of the doors to the room opened, and what looked like a Crab Droid walked through, and stomped on the screaming individual, splitting them in two, and covering the surrounding area in blood. Another of the crew members shot the panel to the door, causing it to close on the Crab Droid, almost splitting it in twain. Then, several droid boarding pods pierced through the walls, and B1s and a few B2s dropped through, and the two sides started to fire on each other, spraying red and green blaster fire across the room. Some individuals at the consoles never got a chance to stand up, as they were then subsequently executed by headshot. One B1 got a hold of a crew member, and pressed their thumbs into their eyes, causing the crewmember to scream in pain and their eyes were squished into blood and puss. Another B1 slammed another crewmember to the ground, pulled out a knife, and repeatedly stabbed them in the throat, until their whole head came off. Meanwhile, a Magnaguard, which Anakin recognised as the same one that he was attacked by, grabbed a crewmember, and ripped their head off, sending their blood everywhere, but then a grenade went off, sending the Magnaguard flying across the room. Meanwhile, two more Crab Droids joined in the fight, and they shot another crewmember to pieces, before one of them was destroyed by 3 crewmembers, by shooting a rocket at it. Then, one B1 went up to the captain of the ship in his chair, pulled out a knife, and slashed his throat, causing the captain to bleed out. Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the windows of the control room, and explosions started to go off, and then the footage began to glitch out, and then it stopped.

Anakin felt like he was going to vomit up his lunch, and looked to Ahsoka to see that she had doubled down on the floor, clutching her stomach, and had a green look on her face.

"I-I gotta go!" said Ahsoka as she ran out the room, clutching her mouth. Obi-Wan, Plo Koon and the clones had disturbed looks on their faces, and Yoda simply looked saddened at the grotesque amount of death. Even Windu looked disturbed by the footage.

"Has the senate seen this footage", asked Windu.

"Yes sir", replied Switch, "I believe that they are having a meeting about this right now. But the footage we found isn't the only kicker. We found out where it came from. Also by accident."

"Please, do tell", said Plo Koon.

"The Chrelythiumn system. Deep within Wild space."

Anakin's eyes widened as he looked at Obi-Wan, "The same system where we encountered Mortis."

"Yes", replied Obi-Wan, "It seems so."

Yoda sighed to himself, "Deeper down the rabbit hole, this mystery goes.


	4. Homecoming-part 3: destination boulevard

_"The streets are still on fire, and the towers look like they're about to crumble any second now. I can see the fireships nearby, though. Once I get out, I'll call you straight-"_  
 **Holocall between 2 individuals, just before both Coruscant skyscrapers collapsed to the ground**

* * *

 **Serenno**  
 **Count Dooku's palace**

On first sight of the palace, many would assume that it belonged to a king, or a wealthy monarch. They would be right to assume so, for this palace, that stood on the Cliffside of a large drop down, was home to the head of state to the Separatists, Count Dooku of the House of Dooku. Deep within said palace, Count Dooku was meditating in his quarters, surrounding himself with what few true Sith artefacts he had, and what teachings they possessed, as well as several Jedi artefacts as well. Though Dooku was Sidious's apprentice, he was rarely given any new Sith- Or Jedi, as a matter of fact- artefacts to study, severely crippling him in any quest for new knowledge on the Dark Side of the force.

Dooku let himself sigh in exasperation, hoping that his master could not sense it across the galaxy. Was it not in Darth Bane's writings, that the master must teach his apprentice all he knows, so that one day, the apprentice should kill the master, and take an apprentice of his own, continuing the Rule of Two? If that was the case, then Sidious should be giving him more- Much more- opportunities to find more teachings of the Sith, instead of giving him task after task to complete, to further his master's plan. Even in the spare time that he had, he would be busy with his own more important matters, such as keeping Grievous on his leash, and punishing those who both stand against him, and those who fail him.

It was times like these that Dooku doubted that he was an actual apprentice to his master. At times like these, he felt like more of a placeholder to the title of Sith Apprentice; he was a caretaker, keeping the name spic and span until the real candidate for the apprentice shows up, and Dooku is done away with, his role in history as important as a caretaker droid.

At this point, Dooku could see two differing paths: the first one is that Sidious keeps Dooku as his apprentice when the war ends, and he becomes ruler of the new face of central power in the galaxy. Now, this would make sense, considering that Dooku was already the public face of the CIS, and already had much political and cultural influence within his patchwork alliance. Dooku was also very skilled at politics, and was already trained and knowledgeable in both the Jedi ways, and the ways of the Sith, from his time as a member of the Jedi, and now as the apprentice of Lord Sidious, as well as a few teachings that he learnt from various force orders throughout the galaxy from his time as a Jedi (the Guardians of the Whills and the Church of the Force, to name just a few). The second option would be that Sidious would be rid of him, either when the time came when a stronger user of the force would arise, or when the war ended, and Sidious had the Sith Empire that he craved so dearly. This would also make sense, as Dooku was quite old himself, and couldn't live forever (Then again, neither could Sidious, though Dooku had his doubts about that). Plus, he was losing that spark of energy that he had when he was younger, and much more powerful, and he could only go so far before his limitations caught up to him-

Dooku shook his head in self-frustration. He should cease these thoughts. Even with his mental shields around his mind, his master would be able to sense his doubts, even, as said before, from across the galaxy. Then again, there have been changes in the force as of very recently. Dooku could barely feel it, but it seemed to be originating from Coruscant, all the way in the core. Either his master had done something to the force, and not informed Dooku about it, or this was outside of the Sith's work. Either way, maybe this would distract Sidious from Dooku's thoughts.

{BEEP BEEP}

Then again, maybe not.

Dooku quickly ceased his meditation- The Sith and Jedi artefacts which once floated in the air, open and exposed, closed themselves, and gently floated to the floor- And got up from his position, calmly walking over to his desk near the end of the large, green lit hall. He quickly shielded away his thoughts behind his mental barriers, and, with a press of a button on his large desk, the floor below his artefacts gently lowered, moving to his hidden basement, where he kept all of his wealth and other treasures. With another press of a button, he quickly pushed his large chair away, and bowed, as a life-sized hologram of Darth Sidious appeared before him, his cowl hiding his face away from sight, yet his scowl somehow as clear as day.

"What is thy bidding, my master", calmly asked Dooku, his exterior betraying his inner thoughts of fear and frustration. Even after so long, the mere sight of Sidious was still as Nerve-racking as ever.

 _"There has been... a disturbance in the Force",_ stated Sidious, clearly making no effort to hide his frustrations. Then again, when did he ever? There was a possible lose threat in his web of plans, Dooku could obviously gather, and his master could not, and would not, suffer any threats to his designs. Sidious was so close to seeing the fruitions of his machinations, as he liked to subtly brag, and nothing will stop him from seeing it through.

"I sensed it too", said Dooku, "It must have been very powerful to have felt it across the galaxy."

 _"Oh, indeed. There is a possibility that one of your... Subordinates"_ , the last syllable rasped off of Sidious' tongue, like he had just said a diseased word, _"Is making his own private army of droids."_

"That would be impossible", stated Dooku, "I have all of our allies and minions under close watch. If they did something, we would surely be the first to know of it."

 _"Either way, you are to travel to the Chrelythiumn System, deep within Wild Space, and report on anything- Anything \- that may pose a derailment to my plans."_

"What of the Republic, master? Surely they will send their own forces to the same system, as well?"

 _"Oh, most definitely. The Republic's senate is crying out for blood, and they will most likely send the Jedi and their forces to the system as well, so investigate the system, and leave before the Jedi arrive."_

"Yes, my master."

 _"Do be cautious, Lord Tyranus"_ , Sidious' tone was laced with false solicitousness, _"There is an unforeseen threat to my plans. Nothing must stand in my way."_

As the hologram disappeared, it's blue hue quietly and gently dissipating, Dooku got up from his position, and stood up straight. He then pressed several more buttons on his desk, and a holographic image of a Super Tactical Droid appeared.

"General Kraken, prepare my ship for departure. I am leaving for the Chrelythiumn System."

 _"Yes, my lord"_ , replied Kraken, with a monotone voice, _"I shall inform General Kalani of your arrival."_

"Kalani? He is already there?"

 _"Yes, my lord. He took command of 6th fleet over Raxus, and departed to the Chrelythiumn System."_

"On whose authority?" exasperated Dooku.

 _"He informed me that it was on yours."_

Dooku was flabbergasted. Tremors in the force, and now droids going rogue? Something is causing all of this, and Dooku was determined to find out what was going on...

* * *

 **Coruscant  
Senate Building  
Grand Convocation Chamber**

"This was an attack by the Separatists! The reports confirm it!" called out one Carasi Sohura, the Human senator of Coruscant itself, her loud thunder echoing throughout the large, grey, and dully lit Senate chamber. Her cry was responded to with cheers from dozens of other senators, "We must retaliate!"

"Here here", called out another Human Senator in agreement, as well as many other senators in the vast chamber, in a loud chorus of cheers and applause.

"We don't yet know if it was the Separatists to blame", called out Lott Dod, Senatorial representative of the Trade Federation, "For all we know, it could be the Black Sun or the Zahn Consortium that we ought to blame."

"Of course it was the Separatists!" called out Senator Ask Aak of Malastare, "It was the Trade Federation's own droids that were identified in that crash! You just don't want to be blamed because our retaliation would hurt your profits!"

"I resent that!" yelled the Neimodian Senator, though he quietly muttered to himself that any kind of retaliation would just increase the funds and profits of the Trade Federation anyways.

"I second that!" called out Senator Gume Saam of the Techno Union. He then quickly glanced to his fellow senatorial businessman, and exchanged a silent nod of agreement: Whatever the Senate descided, it would just increase their profits either way.

"Wouldn't retaliation lead to more spending?" called out Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila, who, with Padme Amidala, Bail Organa, and many others in the Loyalist committee, acted as the voices of reason in the Senate, though today, reason seemed to be in a loosing battle, "We've already cut spending to so many systems to fuel the war effort against the Separatists, and that was before the Mandalore Incident dragged us into war against the crime syndicates in the Outer Rim. We can't-"

"Senator Mothma", coldly said Senator Hack Fenlon, "Now is not the time to be playing logistics. Now is the time to strike back!"

There were shouts of agreements from various senators to Senator Fenlon's statement. The senate was baying for blood, and nothing looked like it would stop them from getting their fill.

"Senator Mothma is right", spoke Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan, who, out of Mothma and Amidala, was the more passionate voice of the Loyalist committee, while Mothma was the more pragmatic one, and Amidala was the more soft spoken one, yet had the loudest voice of all, "Any further increase in warfare will lead to more cuts in civilian needs and requirements. We've already had this talk before-"

"And you came out backing the losing Tauntaun, as always, Senator Organa", said Senator Halle Burtoni of Kamino, whom had been at odds with the Loyalist committee for the entire war, for obvious reasons, "This shall be no different. What has happened not even 24 hours ago is the exact same as what happened 2 years ago, when the Separatists bombed the Central Power Generators; this only happened because of a lack of troops protecting us, and now it has happened again, for the exact same reasons."

Several senators cheered out in response, while others protested and argued, the senate chamber becoming a cacophony of ugly noise and yells.

"Don't try to spin what happened yesterday to your favour, Senator Burtoni!" called out Senator Riyo Churchi of Pantora over the screams and the cries of the rest of the senate. The young senator got heckles and cat calls from several other senators, but she didn't take notice, "We still have no idea what actually happened yesterday, or how. You only want to increase military spending to make your planet richer than it already is!"

"Balderdash!" spurted Senator Burtoni, "I merely want to protect the people of the Republic from animals like Dooku! From what I've gathered, the death toll is now up to 11,400, and slowly rising! Tomorrow, how many will it be? 100,000? 1,000,000?"

"You exaggerate!" shouted a Rodian senator, whom now represented Rodia in the place of the late Onaconda Farr.

"No, I'm being realistic!" shot back Senator Burtoni, "Our children's lives are on the line more than ever, and if we don't increase military spending immediately, then the Separatists will enslave us all!"

"How do we increase spending at this point, anyway?" asked one Dug senator, "With the deregulation, we've pretty much opened up as many lines of credit with the IGBC as possible. Where else are we going to draw money from?"

"Cuts, my friend", said the Human Senator- Whom represented Kuat Drive Yards, and Kuat itself- next to him, "We've done it once, we'll do it again."

"You know something", said the Koorivar Senator on the opposite seat next to the Dug senator, "I really don't think that we're gonna get out of this one."

"Yeah, I hear that", replied the Dug senator, who then muttered something in his native language, though what it was, his compatriots were unaware.

Meanwhile, in her own seat, Padme sat in anguish at the horrendous display in front of her. The entire senate had turned to verbal barbarianism, spewing bile and threats to each other, in hopes to have themselves heard over the others. Even her close colleagues, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, had devolved into shouting and verbally clawing at their fellow senators, as frantic screams and cheers could cause even the most resilient of ears to deafen.

The worst part of all of this was that Padme couldn't even get her own point across amidst the screaming and shouting of the various senators in the grand hall. At this point, she had stopped bothering to try. Anger and emotions were still very much raw and bloody over what happened yesterday, and she was sure that more than a few people in the grand hall had lost somebody that they at least somewhat knew. The district that the strange ship had crashed into was the Uscru district, housing the Galaxies Opera House, and the Entertainment District, both of which were popular destinations for senators, their families, and other wealthy members of upper society to visit and spend their time in, so it was obvious that this anger was more personal than for the betterment of the Republic. Some were angry that they'd lost people they knew, and were blinded by grief, others were angry at the loss of life and were caught up in a patriotic fever, while the rest were just angry at the fact that they'd lost their favourite entertainment establishments, and no other reason (No one could really tell those ones off for being selfish, what with being Senators and such).

Padme was aware that she should find out who, so that she could at least offer them her condolences, but at this point, she couldn't be bothered to do so, and that was what filled her with shame the most. It was as if this war had dulled out her senses to the ugly tune of suffering, and turned her sympathy into an empty shell of what it once was. And now she was surrounded by angry barbarians for politicians, who could only ever agree on increasing the cries war, and spilling more blood, which, in the end, were the same thing.

 _I guess Halle really was right_ , thought Padme to herself, in an uncharacteristic show of weakness, _Democracy really has failed the Republic..._

...What was she thinking? She was Padme Amidala, the symbolic leader of the Loyalist Committee (The technical leader was On Free Tar, though he hardly ever did anything himself) and the biggest advocator of peace. She couldn't compromise her principles now. She had to stay strong, for the good of the Republic, and the galaxy. Democracy has worked before, and it shall work again.

Yet now, ever since the crash yesterday, there was a nagging voice in the back of her head that said that both sides were wrong. Peace was the most desirable outcome, of course, where everyone lives, but democracy wasn't the right way of doing it, and neither was war. If one being held control, then they could bring about the peace that they want. All they would need to do was make a few sacrifices...

"Listen, everybody", yelled out a H'nenthe senator, who's name eluded Padme, "We know where the ship came from: the Chrelythiumn System, deep in Wild Space! The Separatists are probably there, planning a massive assault. The attack yesterday must've just been a prelude. A warning! I say we march our forces down there, and kick the droids right in their mechanical behinds! Then, we kill a thousand Separatists for every citizen we've lost today!"

A massive chorus of cheers and applause followed his short, but oh so sweet statement, fuelling the already burning passions of vengeance within the souls of all the senators present, as if a conductor, or choirmaster was orchestrating a song of fire and brimstone, and all Padme could do was sit back, and listen to the ugly, noisy cacophony of a tune.

"Order! Order!" called out Vice Chair Mas Amedda, banging his hammer against the ground of the central hoverpod, where Chancellor Palpatine sat passively, unfazed by the commotion and verbal chaos of the grand hall.

"In accordance with our democracy", said Palpatine, to Padme's disgust, waving around the word 'democracy' like it meant anything in this place, "All those in favour of conducting military action in the Chrelythiumn System, say Aye."

A massive chorus of ayes followed, booming through the senate building like thunder.

"All those who appose?"

In stark contrast, only a few noes could be heard, acting like a faint echo in an abandoned hallway.

"The ayes have it."

As the senators began to dismiss themselves from the grand hall, Padme looked over to Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, to see them looking at her in silent anger and disbelief. It only took her a few moments after that to process what she had done.

She said Aye.

Padme was immediately disgusted with herself.

 _Liberty, it seems_ , said the voice inside of her, _Is one step closer to dying._

* * *

 **Jedi Temple  
Council Chamber**

"With all due respect, Chancellor", said Mace Windu, as he and his fellow members of the Jedi council sat together in their seats in the council chamber, eyes directly on the glowing blue holographic image of the chancellor of the Republic himself. Out of all the council members sitting in their seats, only Kit Fisto, Depa Billaba, and Shaak Ti were holograms, showing that they were across the galaxy on different battle fields, outposts, or worlds, "We have no idea what is in the Chrelythiumn System. We don't have any probes to spare to scout out the system, and all our intel of that entire region of space is based off of several outdated maps and guides, and a questionable after action report", as he said that, he eyed Obi-Wan with an neutral face, to which Obi-Wan responded with a 'Seriously, right now?' look.

 _"I'm sorry, Master Jedi, but my hands are tied at this time"_ , replied Chancellor Palpatine, his voice as soft-spoken and gentle as ever, _"The Senate has voted to send our forces there, and their passion about it is quite profound. I fear that if we defy them, then there will be more than anger about."_

"There always is anger", said Obi-Wan. Windu shot him a look, in response to his comment, but Palpatine and Yoda waved it away.

 _"As much as I would like to disagree with you, Master Kenobi, you are , as always, correct. Besides, we have reason to believe that the other occupants of the ship were either colonists or refugees escaping from the Separatists, or some other group in the Outer Rim, so there is a chance that the Separatists are holding prisoners there."_

"...Thank you, Chancellor", said Mace Windu, "We'll be moving out by the end of the day."

 _"Of course, Master Jedi. I shall leave the rest to you."_

As the Chancellor's hologram faded away, Obi-Wan looked at Mace with a questioning glance, "Is the Chancellor really expecting us to march ourselves into a system with no actionable intelligence to work with? Not only that, but he failed to mention anything about the markings on the droids on that ship, or the droids themselves."

"Or the occupants of the ship", chimed in Plo Koon, his hands joined together, "Other than assumptions. Not only that, but the ship from the crash yesterday is unlike anything we've ever seen. Even damaged, that technology on both the ship, and the droids is incredibly advanced."

"So, we're looking at the possibility of organic droids, and much more advanced technology in that sector", said Kit Fisto.

"We could be sending our troops against an enemy we've never encountered before", noted Saesee Tiin, "They'd be slaughtered."

"This is not like anything we have ever encountered", said Shaak Ti, "Not even the Sith could accomplish feats of technology on this scale."

"Are we sure we are talking about the same thing?" asked Oppo Rancisis to Shack Ti, "These are just droids, after all."

"Organic droids", answered Obi-Wan, "In a way. They have organic veins and blood in them. Not to mention that the armour on them is of a density on par with Mandalorian metal."

"And the other inhabitants of the ship are of a species we have never seen before", added Plo Koon, "Or species."

"Maybe this is a trick", said Saesee Tinn, "Maybe this is a trap by the Separatists or one of the crime syndicates to send our forces to this region of space, and slaughter us there, or attack a critical system to the Republic."

"I doubt it", replied Obi-Wan, "If this is a trick, why would the Separatists or our other enemies create this type of droid, and then have them destroyed immediately? Why would they bother to create such an elaborate trap, just to lure out a portion of our forces, instead of using that technology to their own advantage? And where did they get such advanced technology, which, by the way, puts the Umbarans to shame? I mean, we still don't know how it all works", he paused for a second, looking for a response from his fellow council members, before saying, "Plus, what about the other inhabitants of that ship? They have a completely different biology to any other living thing that we've encountered in the entire galaxy."

"That is true", said Depa Billaba, breaking Obi-Wan's questions, "Not even the Separatists would waste so much time and effort to create new technology, just to lure us out."

"What ever the truth is, we will find out soon", said Mace Windu as he turned to Obi-Wan, "Kenobi, you, Skywalker and his Padawan are to take the 501st and 212th to the Chrelythiumn system, and find out what is going on over there."

"But isn't Masters Tiplee and Tiplar closest?" asked Obi-Wan, "Them and the Doom Battalion should be able to get there quicker", sure, they were being regularly harassed by Black Sun and Zygerrian raiders, but they were hardly a threat, and more like a regular annoyance.

"They don't have enough knowledge of the system to be able to navigate through it", replied Windu, his hands now resting on his chin, "You and Skywalker have been there, and although your report on it is, again, questionable, you should be able to move through there easier than anyone else."

"Right then", said Obi-Wan as he got up from his seat and walked towards the door of the chamber, "I shall inform Anakin of what we are to do, and meet him at the hanger."

"Do be cautious, Obi-Wan", said Yoda, "Know what is out there, we do not. Expect anything, you should."

"Yes, of course Master Yoda", said Obi-Wan as he opened the door with the force, and began to walk out of the chamber, "May the force be with you."

"To you, and."

* * *

 **Chrelythiumn System  
Providence-Class Dreadnaught _Lucid Voice_**

"Sir", said an OOM pilot droid on board of the Providence class Dreadnaught _Lucid Voice_ , "We have eyes on the Monolith. The fleet is approaching it now."

"Excellent", droned Kalani as he sat in his large seat, his optics staring straight at the object in question, "Move the fleet to sector Alpha 50125, and have our fighters secure the surrounding space around the monolith. A republic attack is imminent, and we must be ready for it."

"Roger roger", said the droid, as it turned back to the green lit console in front of it. Kalani looked out of the bridge, and straight at the monolith. It was five kilometres long, in deep, width, and wide, and was like 2 4-sided pyramids stuck together, and was a dull red and black colour, and was covered in red lines.

At least, that what the still intact parts look like.

Kalani pondered that what ever was on the other side of the monolith, could it be affecting the monolith in real space? Unknown, but it was beginning to look probable. The edges of the monolith had become rugged and jagged, and there were several chunks of the monolith were threatening to float away, only being held in place by thick, yet flexible organic cables, with pieces of dead flesh from the cables peeling off, and chunks of red blood, frozen in space, floating next to the monolith, and on the monolith, caking 2 kilometres of it in red paste. The surface of the monolith was rugged and cracked, with streaks of green and red light pouring out of the cracks.

Kalani then pulled a datapad of from the side of his chair, and examined the information that had been gathered. According to intelligence gathered by Separatist spies, as well as various intelligence reports from across the entire CIS intelligence network, in the Outer Rim, the closest Republic forces were either a Loyalist fleet of Republic PDF and Judicial forces near D'Qar, with Separatist guerrilla forces launching multiple attacks against them, and keeping them on their toes, an ORSF taskforce stationed near Seswenna, though reports said that they were under siege from a Zahn Consortium fleet, and a substantial Republic fleet near Utapau, under the command of Jedis Tiplee and Tiplar, but they were under attack from Black Sun and Zygerrian slavers, but they were too weak to be a hinderance of any kind to the Jedi and their forces. Out of the three fleets, the fleet under the command of the Jedi was the closest.

Kalani internally chuckled, though he didn't let it show. Thanks to the Mandalore Incident, when the neutral world of Mandalore was taken over by Death Watch, with the help from the Hutts, Black Sun, and Pyke Syndicate, as well as the now continuing siege of the world, with the Jedi General Kota and his militia sent by the Jedi to liberate the planet, and the crime syndicates that took over the planet openly fighting against them for control of the influential planet, the Jedi Council were then given all of the leverage that they needed to petition the Republic Senate to begin open operations against the crime syndicates, pirates, and warlords of the Outer Rim, to which the Senate gave their consent: The Republic military had been outgrowing the problem of trying to defend their own territories while attacking and sending forces against Separatist forces, and with the CIS loosing more and more forces and territory, subsequently becoming less and less of a threat, as well as the combined military might of the GAR, as well as the annexed PDF forces, the ORSF, the additional forces of the planetary governments that the Republic helped to overthrow, as well as smaller groups such as General Kota's militia forces and other Republic friendly forces, the Senate was eager to strengthen their grip on the Outer Rim, increase their military might even more than before, and was viewing the Separatists as less and less of a threat, and as such, send many of their forces into the Outer Rim against the crime families, pirate gangs, and tin pot despots of the galaxy, expecting an easy victory.

It was to be anything but. The crime families, raiders, and warlords of the Outer Rim were much more heavily armed and militarized than expected, and instead of being crushed under heal, the crime families went into open war with the Republic forces, their Venator and Victory Star Destroyers being outrun by swift fleets of Gozanti-class cruisers and Interceptor-class frigates of the Black Sun, their space stations being destroyed and taken apart by Pyke Syndicate saboteurs, their ground forces ripped apart by warlord militias and their acquired vehicles like AATs, AT-APs, Infantry Support Platforms, Bantha-ll cargo skiffs, and Z-95s, and entire Republic fleets under siege from Zahn Consortium fleets of Marauder-class corvettes, Skipray Blastboats, and pirated Munificent-class star frigates and Acclamator-class assault ships, and while the Republic and the Hutts weren't fighting each other, due to the treaties made during the beginning of the war for the Republic to use the Hutts' hyperspace lanes, the other factions were paying off the Hutts to let them move their forces through their territories in order to attack Republic forces, and the Jedi and the Senate couldn't do anything, less they be depraved of the Hutts' crucial hyperspace lanes.

The Republic had become intrenched in a new war they were hopelessly unprepared for, and while the Outer Rim factions were hardly as strong as the mighty Republic military, they kept the Jedi and their forces on their toes, and kept them distracted long enough from the Separatists. While the Jedi and the Republic military had been focused on the Outer Rim and the vast enemies that they found themselves at war with, the CIS military was licking it's wounds, and rebuilding it's forces, using the new reprieve to plan and plot their counterattack, and once the Republic was firmly distracted with the campaigns now known as the Outer Rim Sieges, the Separatists launched a lightning attack, taking back much of the territory that they had lost during the war, henceforth, in a way, making the sacrifices of the Republic troops that died taking those worlds pointless, and then launching a blitz attack into Republic territory, aiming for the core worlds, but were unfortunately stopped by Republic PDF and Judicial forces, Jedi generals, and GAR forces that were redeployed from the Outer Rim Sieges and other parts of Republic territory. The entire event had launched the Clone Wars into a new phase, and was now split into a 3 way struggle: The Republic vs the CIS vs the Outer Rim crime syndicates and factions.

The chance of the Republic sending the Jedi fleet against them was 87.49%, as it was the most logical move. However, he was prepared for the inevitable assault. His fleet was in a tight formation, facing directly where the Republic would most likely come out of Hyperspace, should they come down the most logical route. The Chrelythiumn System was riddled with uncharted asteroids, comets, and stars, and there were several nebulas in the System which scrambled targeting systems, communications, and sensors, (It took a short while for Kalani's fleet to reboot their systems, and re-establish connection with each other, so there was his proof that the intelligence provided to him by the data overload was accurate), so only people with prior knowledge of the system could safely navigate through the system unharmed and fully operational.

Of course, any one could essentially fly through the system, as the nebulas themselves were not that big of a threat, but their ship would be damaged, their internal systems would be scrambled, and they would be at their weakest when they get through it.

"Sir", said B1-268 as he entered the bridge, "We just received a transmission from General Kraken; Count Dooku is on his way here."

"...Affirmative, B1-268", said Kalani, "Keep me informed."

"Roger roger", said B1-268 hesitantly, as he walked over to one of the droids at a console, and began to give him instructions.

Kalani stood up from his seat, and walked over to the front of the bridge. He had his orders. Nothing would stop him. Not the Republic. Not the Jedi, Not Dooku.

Nothing.

* * *

 **Coruscant  
Jedi Temple  
Hallway (On route to hanger)**

Anakin sighed to himself as he walked through the Jedi Temple halls, passing by many a Jedi, preforming their daily tasks, as if nothing had changed at all. The average citizen of the Republic would imagine that with the war against the Separatists, the Jedi temple halls would be deserted, with the many Jedi Knights, Masters. and Padawans spread across the galaxy, fighting the good fight against the supposedly infinite droid hordes (Republic Intelligence had garnered a reputation for overplaying the Separatist threat). This was only a half truth, or a half lie: the Temple halls were still busy, with younglings and padawans running around, catching up on their studies, or preforming basic tasks for their teachers. Temple Guards patrolled the large grandiose hallways and chambers, and Jedi Knights and Masters were constantly leaving and returning from faraway missions, spending only a short time at the temple on leave, before heading off to their next life threatening, galaxy defining assignments. The other side of this, however, was that the Temple halls weren't as busy as they use to be. Most of the elder Jedi would be away across the galaxy, fighting on the frontlines, instead of staying at the Temple, meditating, and keeping the company of their peers, superiors, and lessers. Good friends would be separated for months at a time, sometimes one would be gone longer than the other, and by the time the other returns to the temple, their friend is already on the battlefield again, continuing the cycle. Sometimes, the only way to return to the temple, and not have to worry about leaving, was either severe injuries, or in a body bag...

This wasn't what was causing Anakin such stress though; though it had only been a day, he still hadn't seen or heard from Padme since he went to investigate the crash site. Admittedly, that was probably his fault, as he did go there by his own accord, but still, he wanted to personally confirm that she was alright, even though that Obi-Wan told him that she was fine. Still, though, duty calls, so he will have to check on her when he gets back from the Chrelythiumn System. However long that will be.

The Chrelythiumn System... Where they found Mortis and the Ones... Where Ahsoka turned to the dark side...

When Obi-Wan called him, and told him where their next assignment was, Anakin was half surprised. Not at where they were going, but with how much force they were going with. The entire 501st and 212th going to a seemingly deserted system on the far edges of Wild Space was a move that he never expected the Senate to take, or something that the High Council would agree with. It just seemed so pointless and unexpected. Then again, in this war, the Senate have been quicker with their decision making, but only if that meant escalating the war further for their own purposes, and the Jedi Council have been quicker to heel in acting on the Senate's demands, becoming more like a sick pup to it's master. To Anakin, it was beginning to look like the Jedi were actively complying with the Senate's growingly aggressive demands, so they could either be the Senate's permanent watchdogs.

Or was the Council trying to cosy up to the Senate, so they could take power for themselves?

Anakin shook these thoughts out of his head. He shouldn't be thinking these. He's a Jedi. The Chosen One to boot! He should have faith that the Jedi Council knows what they are doing. At least, that's what he tells himself. But just saying that doesn't stop him from having doubts about the order, or more specifically, the Council. At this point in his life, and the war, it now seems like the Council was trying to acquire power for itself, with everyone out for themselves. Specifically, Master Windu and Master Yoda. But surely Obi-Wan would never stand for this. He was one of the only good eggs in the entire Council, besides Master Plo, of course. Neither of them would stand for that.

Right?

Anakin was broken out of his thoughts by the entrance to the hanger opening. His brain must've put his motor functions on autopilot and carried him to the hanger while he was in deep thought. Great. How many people probably saw his deep thought face? Ahsoka and Padme always said that his deep thought face was weird, and kinda funny, so he was a bit self conscious of it. And now everyone he past saw it. Magnificent...

Anakin walked through the entrance and into the hanger, spotting many workers going about their business, fuelling and repairing Starfighters of different shapes and sizes, from V-Wings, to LAAT/I Gunships, to ETA-2 Actis-Class Light Interceptors (He and Ahsoka had just received one each to test out), and various other ships and fighters. Above all the noise of equipment, engines, and clutter, Anakin could make out the conversations of the workers at the various crafts.

"Oi, Jackar! stop lounging about and get back to work!"

"Right, sorry sir!"

"-To your right, pull out the red one... no your other right."

"-Goes over here, and that engine goes over to the Gunship over there-"

"Hey, who left their sandwich here?... well, I mean, if no one else is going to eat it..."

"-The hose attached to it. There's still a blaze from yesterday's crash-"

"Did you hear what happened yesterday?"

"How could I not?"

"Hey, who's got the coolant tank. We've got an overheated regulator here!"

"Kali, Marti, Kordan. All of them, gone-"

"Oh Gods, bad idea! That sandwich was rotten! Oh Gods, stomach poisoning, I await you!"

Anakin pulled himself away from his eavesdropping, as he spotted Ahsoka and Obi-Wan waiting for him next to a Coruscant Police Gunship, with Commander Thorn- His Z-6 Rotary Blaster, which he'd called the 'Hammer' slung on his back, and held their by a custom ammo belt- and two Coruscant Guard Clone Troopers standing guard.

"Anakin", said Obi-Wan as he spotted his former Padawan, "Is this what you call being fashionably late?"

"Sorry master", replied Anakin in a similar snarky tone as he approached the two, "I was busy with something important."

That was either a half truth, or a half lie.

"If by busy", began Ahsoka, with a gentle smirk on her face, "Do you mean you're still building that model Starfighter from scratch?"

That was quick.

"Which one?" asked Obi-wan.

"Um, I think he called it the 'Azure Angel', or something."

"Hey, everyone has to have a hobby", defended Anakin with a smile, "Mine at the moment happens to be building tiny model Starfighters out of wood and paper. Mostly wood."

"Who still uses paper nowadays?" asked Ahsoka.

"I believe the Chancellor sometimes sends handwritten letters to other delegates or polititians", said Obi-Wan, "But how they get halfway across the galaxy in the time required is beyond me."

"Changing the Subject", said Anakin, "Nobody's here to see us off?"

"No, I'm afraid. Master Plo has already left with the Wolfpack to assist Master Fisto in taking Akiva and Dermos from the Separatists, and the rest of the Council on Coruscant is, to my knowledge, discussing issues with the Chancellor, though what those issues are, I don't know."

"Oh, are they now?" Anakin arched his eyebrows, his earlier doubts coming back to the forefront of his mind.

The Three Jedi then boarded the Police Gunship, with Commander Thorn and the two CG Clone Troopers getting on after them, allowing the Gunship to take off, and leave the hanger.

As the Gunship flew through the air on it's way to the Cruiser staging area, bypassing the many speeder lanes that flooded the skies, Obi-Wan looked at Anakin, and sensed frustration in him, "Anakin, are you alright?"

Anakin looked at him, and after a few moments hesitation, said, "I don't trust the Council to do the right thing."

"Wha- Anakin, the Council has been in charge of the Jedi ever since the start of the order."

"Okay, let me rephrase that; I don't trust the current individuals on the Council to do the right thing."

"What do you mean?" asked Ahsoka with a look of concern on her face.

"Okay, picture this", began Anakin, "The council claim that they are protectors of the galaxy, right?"

"Well, that extends to all Jedi, but yes", answered Obi-Wan as he wore a face of curiosity, while tweezing the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

"Yet they go through pretty drastic lengths to get there", said Anakn, "Like not to long ago."

Obi-Wan immediately knew what he was referring to, "Anakin, I was, and still am sorry about that, but going undercover as Hardeen was nece-"

"Not now", coldly stated Anakin, who was still hurt over the experience, "But the Council approving of something like that shows how dark they have gotten, thanks to this war."

"That's not the only thing, is it?" asked Ahsoka.

"Two things", replied Anakin, "Going back to what I was saying, the Council has gotten dark over the war, but has also been obeying the Senate's exact commands more and more frequently."

"And?" asked Obi-Wan.

"I think that- and this is a long shot, pretty stupid, and most likely entirely false- the Council is trying to place the entire order in a permanent position of power within the Republic Government."

"Thereby taking control of the entire Senate, and the Republic", finished Obi-Wan.

"I wouldn't go that far, but yeah. I guess."

"That's absolutely absurd", stated Ahsoka, "The Jedi are meant to protect the Republic, not rule it!"

"Yes well", began Anakin, "Sometimes the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

"That is true", said Obi-Wan, "Over our lifetimes, we have fought people with genuinely good intentions at heart, but wrong ways of going about with it, but I have to agree with Ahsoka on this one, Anakin. That sounds completely implausible."

"I did say it was most likely false", defended Anakin.

"But why would the Council want to take over the Republic in the first place?" asked Ahsoka, her facial tattoos for eyebrows expressing her confusion and curiosity at the subject.

"Well, they may think that the best way to protect the Republic is to rule it", answered Anakin, "Many dictators and despots throughout history have believed that their way of ruling was better for everyone. Besides, over the Millennials, the Council aren't exactly guilt free from making power plays. I mean, look at what happened in the Tion Cluster."

The three Jedi stood in silence for a few moments, musing over what Anakin had said. The Tion incident had been hundreds of years ago, and still, the scars of what happened are fresh and raw in the minds of the Tionese, and the Galaxy. It was the reason that the Main Military of the Republic was disbanded up until now, and was the start of Anti-Jedi sentiment in the Galaxy.

"So you are saying that what happened in the Tion could happen again?" asked Obi-Wan.

"It's highly implausible, but that hasn't stopped the doubts."

Ahsoka then looked at Commander Thorn, "Hey- It's Thorn, right. With the giant gun called the Sledgehammer?- if the Jedi were to take over the Republic, where would your loyalties stand?" it was definitely an out there question, and Ahsoka wasn't really sure if she'd get an answer.

"Oh, um, I can't really say for sure", hesitantly answered Thorn, "But what I can say is that us Clones were engineered to be loyal to the Republic, and that means the people in charge as well, so whoever runs the Republic, we're loyal to them."

The three Jedi were in silence again, with questions in their minds, and doubt in their hearts.

"You said there were two things", said Obi-Wan to Anakin, "What's the second one?"

"The Chrelythiumn System", said Anakin, "The same place we came across Mortis. Where we found the Ones, and we... Spoke to Master Qui-Gon."

"... That was an illusion, Anakin", said Obi-Wan, "Master Qui-Gon, I mean. A fake spirit manifested by the beings of Mortis based on our memories of him."

"I'm still not convinced..."

"So, you think that what ever you two encountered on Mortis, you could encounter again?" asked Ahsoka, remembering her own experience on Mortis. Well, part of it. There was still a bit of a gap in her memory when she was taken by the Son, and then found by Master Skywalker.

"I'm saying that what happened on Mortis, could happen again", answered Anakin, "We still don't know what that planet was, or how or why half the events that happened on that planet actually happened. Even if that was a planet."

"Well", said Obi-Wan, "Just before we were taken off of Mortis, the crystal that hovered above the monastery dropped and shattered. Maybe Mortis was destroyed when that crystal shattered, or taken out of our realm, or something along those lines."

"So", began Ahsoka, "Mortis is either destroyed, or beyond our reach forever?"

"I did say 'something along those lines'", answered Obi-Wan, "From what the spectre of Qui-Gon told me, Mortis was, or still is, a conduit where the entire force of the universe flows. But if that is still relevant, I don't know."

"...Is it possible for there to still be balance in the force, even after Mortis's supposed destruction?" asked Anakin.

"Most likely. Qui-Gon did say that Mortis was a conduit, so it would be probable that the force would still flow through the universe after Mortis's destruction, and if there was any change in the force, we would have sensed it."

"But the feeling in the force yesterday", said Anakin.

"I know", stated Obi-Wan, "It was painful, like-"

"Like the force was being, well, forcefully syphoned away", continued Ahsoka, "Like Billions of souls dying at once, and the force being ripped apart at it's very seems, until it was thrown away."

"Yes", said Obi-Wan, "Like that."

Anakin looked at Ahsoka with eyes of concern, "You had the visions too?"

"... Yeah. Of a planet being torn apart, and a figure in darkness, and, well, other things."

"Oh, Ahsoka I'm-"

"We're approaching the LZ now, sirs", said Commander Thorn, who then looked out of the open doors as the Gunship passed the large Republic military base.

"... Set us down, Thorn", said Anakin.

"Yes General", said Thorn as he walked to the front of the Gunship, and looked at the Clone Pilot, "Set us down at Grid 159."

"Yes sir", said the Pilot, as he steered the Police Gunship to its destination, passing by several LAAT/I gunships, fighters, and GR-75 transports.

As the Gunship passed over the massive military sight, the three Jedi took in the sight of the giant staging ground. Originally designed to be a landing area for large transports before the Clone Wars, and began construction when the Separatist crisis began, roughly 6 or 7 years ago, the project was taken over by the military when the war began, and finished construction several months after the First Battle of Geonosis. The staging area was essentially long rows of space, long enough and wide enough for about 15 Venator and Victory Star Destroyers to fit in. Between each row was a long building as tall as a Venator, and extended down the entire row, and on each long building was a tower, that monitored activity in there sector of the large staging area. Inside the staging area, ground vehicles and Starfighters were kept in storage, and barracks were also built into the large buildings, meaning that entire battalions of Clone Troopers could stay there until their next deployment. In total, there were 30 rows where star destroyers could be stored, meaning that in total, 450 star destroyers could be stored in the staging area, awaiting their next deployment. Next to this staging ground, another, smaller staging ground existed, but this was exclusively for smaller ships in the Republic navy: the Acclamator-Class Assault Ships were reserved their own section of the staging area, and the rest of it was used for Cruisers and frigates, like the Consular-Class c70 Cruisers, Arquitens-Class Light Cruisers, Pelta-Class medical frigates, and GR-75 transports. Officially, the entire docks is under the command of Commander Honor Salima, who was also in command of the CHDF (Coruscant Home Defense Fleet), but unofficially, however willing or not, she answered very much to Admiral Tarkin and his cabal of ambitious, high ranking officers, so it would seem reasonable to question her own ambitions as well.

As the Gunship landed, the three Jedi spotted Captain Rex and Commander Cody crisply walking towards them, helmets off and under armed, showing their formalness.

Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka proceeded to walk of the Gunship, and towards Rex and Cody, while Thorn and his CG Clone Troopers began to walk towards the entrance of one of the large buildings, towards the barracks, and the Police Gunship took off, returning to it's regular duties.

"General Skywalker. General Kenobi", said Rex, as he saluted, "Commander Tano. It's good to see you."

"You too, Rex", replied Anakin with a smile, "On time as ever."

"Yeah, well, I was almost late. The boys and I were busy playing a game of Sabacc."

"Did you win?" asked Ahsoka.

"Obviously."

"You let them play such a mindless game?" asked Obi-Wan to Cody.

"The troopers occasionally get bored between assignments, General", answered Cody, "If it helps to ease off any stress or tension, I tend to look the other way."

"Well, I suppose it can't be helped. Everyone needs something to pass the time", said Obi-Wan, while looking straight at Anakin.

"Hey, it's not weird to build model starships!"

"I didn't say anything."

"It's not weird-"

"I didn't say anything!"

Then, Anakin heard a beep from behind him, and turned around to see R2-D2 rolling towards him.

"Artoo!" said Anakin as he knelt down, and patted Artoo on the dome, "What're you doing here, buddy?"

"He came over to our bunks", said Rex as he stayed behind with the two, while Cody, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka walked on, "Said that you had a bit of an 'episode' yesterday, and a certain Senator wanted someone to look over you", Rex was one of the few people who Anakin had confided with about his relationship with Padme, and as such, they had kept it between themselves.

"Huh, well then", said Anakin to Artoo, "It's good to know that you're with me buddy."

Artoo then let out a series of enthusiastic beeps.

"We should go sir", said Rex, "Everyone's already waiting in the ships."

"Right then", said Anakin, as he got back up onto his feet, "Let's get going."

Unbeknownst to all three of them, Ahsoka was looking back at them, with eyes of concern. Why was she so worried, you might ask. Ahsoka didn't have an answer. She didn't understand why or what she was so worried about. It was as if suddenly she was doubting Anakin's abilities as a Jedi, which she rarely did. There were a few moments here and there, but those where rare, and pasted rather quickly. But now, she was completely confused: why was she caring so much about her master's wellbeing? Was it genuine worry, fear that she wouldn't be able to complete her training if Anakin is injured, or something else...

Probably the first two.

* * *

 **On route to the Chrelythiumn System  
Dooku's Solar Sailer**

Dooku sighed to himself. Whatever that malfunctioning Kalani was doing, he had better have a good reason. Raxus was now without a defence fleet, and it could lead to a defeat of the Separatists top early in his master's plans. He had hoped that he could just leave Kalani on Agamar, and be done with him, but apparently that droid has bigger ambitions that he gives him credit for.

Dooku thought to himself that he should be proud of someone who acts independently of the main collective; that was of course, somewhat symbolic of the Separatists to the corrupt bureaucracy that is the Republic. But, if it is one of his own droids that rebels from him, than that mistake had to be corrected. Dooku just couldn't have his droids willingly turn on him. If word of this got out, then confidence in his army might fall flat. He will personally teach that droid what it means to disobey him. Count on it.

Besides, Lord Sidious had ordered him to scope out the system and identify any threats to his plans. And this might be a threat to his plans. So in reality, he is killing two Convorees with one stone.

"We are approaching destination now", droned his Pilot Droid, who began to calculate the jump out of hyperspace.

"Thank goodness", said Dooku, who began to look at the remote tracker that he had installed in all droid units. There was a large cluster of signals in one specific location in the Chrelythiumn System, which meant that that was where the entire Raxus defence fleet was.

Still, it did lead for a bumpy ride. The Chrelythiumn System might as well be considered uncharted territory, thanks to there never being any reason to come out this far, and now, from what Dooku has heard, it was now on the minds of everyone on Coruscant. Whatever happened there to provoke such interest in an uninteresting region of space must've been big, even for Sidious

Was it to do with the change in the force? This was entirely possible, as Sidious had mentioned it. Could it do with the idea of one of his subordinates building his own army of droids? Improbable, as like Dooku said, he had those loyal to him under intense watch, in case of any signs of dissent against him (the late case of Mina Bonteri should serve as an example to those same people). Was there some other factor that he wasn't taking into account? Maybe, but he'll have to see when he gets to it.

Dooku was taken out of his thoughts when his ship came out of Hyperspace. Before him, he could see the entire 6th fleet. The single Providence Dreadnaught hung in the middle of the web of ships, surrounded by GR-45 transports and Gozanti-Class Cruisers. At least a dozen Recusant-Class light destroyers sat in various places in the fleet, and in the back, 3 Separatist supply ships sat in defensive formations, ready to unleash swarms of fighters at any enemy they encounter. Filling up the rest of the space in the fleet, dozens of Munificent-Class frigates filled the gap, creating a massive swarm of ships.

What immediately caught Dooku's attention was not the fleet, but what was behind it; a massive red and black diamond shapes object, about 5 kilometres tall and wide, and falling apart, with shots of red and green light pouring out of the cracks of it, and chunks of it coming off, only being held together by cables of what looked like dead flesh, rotting off, and floating away.

"Take us to the command ship", ordered Dooku to the pilot droid, who then piloted the Solar Sailer into the hanger of the Providence Dreadnaught, and Dooku immediately departed from the ship to the exit out of the large hanger, paying no heed to the large amassing of droids there. Once he arrived at the bridge, he force-pushed the two Commando Droid guards out of the way, and stormed through the door, immediately laying his eyes on Kalani, who had his back turned to him. Kalani then turned around, and looked straight at Dooku.

"Count Dooku", said Kalani.

"Kalani", angrily began Count Dooku, "What is the meaning of this? I order you to turn this fleet around, and return to Agamar immediately!"

"I cannot."

"Why not?"

"My orders stand."

"Your orders?"

"Correct. I am to protect the monolith at all costs."

"The what? You mean the giant object behind us?"

"Correct?"

"What is it?"

"I cannot say."

"Why not?"

"If I release information of the monolith to others, then my mission will be compromised."

"I am Count Dooku! Leader of the Separatist alliance! Your superior! I order you to return to Agamar, and tell me what that, 'monolith' thing is!"

"Negative. Your orders are overwritten."

"What? By whom?"

"By the ones I have received."

Dooku then ignited his lightsaber, and pointed the red blade at Kalani, "You will do as I command, and return to Agamar immediately."

"... You have no power here, Count Dooku."

"And who does?"

Kalani then turned his back to Dooku, and looked through the open view of the cold emptiness of space.

"Someone more powerful, and frightening, than you."

"Um, sirs", interrupted an OOM pilot droid, "There are several ships entering the system."

"Finally", said Kalani, "The Republic has arrived."

* * *

 **On route to the Chrelythiumn System (In Hyperspace)  
Venator-Class Star Destroyer _Integrity_**

"Master, this is ridiculous."

 _"Could you please be more specific, Anakin? What part of this is 'ridiculous'?"_

"This show of force! I mean, the entire 501st legion and 212th Battalion, 15 Venator-Class Destroyers, 5 Victory-Class Destroyers 6 Acclamator-Class assault ships, those prototype Nebulon-Bs, the _Vanguard_ and _Redemption_ , 7 GR-75s, 8 Arquitens light cruisers, including the _Thunder Wasp_ , _Shyrack_ , _Flensor_ , and _Tumnor_ , and your ship, that Arquitens command cruiser."

 _"The Tellstar, yes. But you have to understand, Anakin, that I'm unnerved by this as well. These ships could be useful on other fronts, like with Master Depa Billaba on Telos."_

"Telos. The planet with the supposed hidden city of metal men."

 _"Yes, as legend would put it. There is a rise in Separatist Militia activity down there, so I'm sure she has her hands full. Besides, I've just received word from the Council: if there's nothing at our destination, we are to leave a ship there until we can be certain that there is nothing hiding there, and move to R/M Facility Four deepdock over Belderone and await further orders. Besides, I had come under the impression that you were a fan of big shows of force."_

"When it comes to fighting an equally large enemy! Or a bunch of droids. Or anyone on my bad side. Either one works for me. But all these ships going up against possible nothing-"

 _"Or possible a force we've never encountered before. You seem so quick to forget what happened yesterday. And what almost killed you. For a droid to do something like that, and for neither of us to have sensed it is definitely something we need to be concerned about. In all honesty, we may not have brought enough,"_

"I guess so."

 _"Anyway, we'll be arriving in the same location when we were last in the system, so that should be quite nostal-" BZZZZT_

The hologram of Obi-Wan then cut off, leading to Anakin worrying a bit on the inside, as these things usually only happen when something bad is coming. He's had enough experience in this war to know that much, "Obi-Wan, do you read? Obi-Wan?"

"I've lost all communications from all other ships", called out one clone naval officer.

"Really?" asked another clone naval officer, "I've still got contact with the _Redemption_ , _Liberator_ , and _Croyx Moth_."

"There was mention of nebulas in those old guides of this system that we reviewed", said Admiral Yularen, who was standing at the front of the bridge with his arms folded behind his back, wisps of white amongst his brown hair, and stubble growing on his chin, indicating that he hadn't shaved in a while, while his moustache began to show white hairs, indicating his growing age, "They must be interfering with our transmissions. We must only be able to contact ships close to us. Is it possible to reboot our communication systems?"

"Yes sir", said the clone naval officer, "Though it will take some time. Right now we can only contact with those 3 ships and our own inner communications."

"Inform the ships we can contact", ordered Anakin, "And tell them that we can only contact ships that we are in close proximity towards, until we can get our communications fully back up. Tell them to pass it on to any other ships that they can contact."

"Yes General."

"I don't like this, Master", said Ahsoka, as she, Anakin, and Artoo walked (and rolled, for the case of one) away from the holo-projector, and up to the front of the bridge, "These things usually have a habit of turning out for the worse."

"I know Ahsoka", replied Anakin, "But right now we're gonna have to make do. Besides, like me and Obi-Wan said, we've-"

"It's 'Obi-Wan and I', actually."

"... Besides, as Obi-Wan and I said, we have a lot of ships here, with a battle hardened crew, and an itchy trigger finger. We're more than ready for anything that the droids through at us."

Artoo then let out a series of beeps and whirls.

"Artoo's got a point", said Ahsoka, "Master Kenobi did say that there could be something out here that we haven't prepared for, or haven't expected. If something like that existed, and if what happened on Coruscant is just the opening of a whole new war, a bump on the head is gonna be the least of our worries."

Anakin then gently rubbed the bruise on his forehead, still sore from yesterday, "Snips, over the last 3 years, we've fought droids, Sith, shark people, zombies, Geonosians, slavers, cyborgs, all powerful force beings, and all sorts of other things. I'm sure there's nothing we can't handle."

"And you've just jinxed us."

"What?"

"What you did right there. That's a jinx. You jinxed us."

"Oh come on, snips-"

"Uh-huh, you, Anakin Skywalker, have officially jinxed us. When this all goes wrong, I will be there to rub it in your face."

 _*Beep boop beep beep._

"Artoo's got my back on this one."

" _Sigh_ , of course he has", muttered Anakin.

"Sir, we're coming out of hyperspace now", said the clone naval officer, "But we're detecting several energy signatures in the system."

"Are they Republic signatures?" asked Admiral Yularen.

"Unknown, sir. Our sensors are scrambled by the nebulas, as are our targeting systems. All ships that we can contact are also reporting the same."

"So there is something out there", said Anakin.

 _*Beep boop._

"We told you", continued Ahsoka.

"Yeah yeah", replied Anakin, as he looked out the window of the bridge to see the blue outside of hyperspace.

Moments later, the entire fleet of 44 ships in total fell out of hyperspace at their destination, immediately seeing what was in front of them: the side of a massive Separatist task force, pointing to their left. Masses of frigates, corvettes, transports and cruisers, all piled together to form a giant mass of grey and blue. But what was behind the fleet, was the most interesting: a massive red and black double pyramid shape, with cable held parts floating in space, and cracks of red and green light shining from the massive object.

To most in the fleet, they had no idea what the massive object was, and were scrambling to get their equipment back online. But to Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka, they immediately knew what it was; the Mortis Monolith, but badly damaged, and falling apart. What had the separatists done to it? And why? Were they trying to open the monolith to get to Mortis, and what did that have to do with yesterday's events on Coruscant?

Anakin and Ahsoka were brought out of their thoughts by Admiral Yularen, who was asking them of what the large object was.

"General Skywalker!" called out Yularen, "What is that thing?"

"The monolith...", muttered Anakin.

"What?"

"L-launch all our fighters!" stammered Anakin as he began to march to the exit of the bridge, past the holo-projector, "And target the Separatist fleet. Order all other ships to do the same!"

"Our systems are still scrambled, sir! We'll be shooting blindly! And we still can't contact the entire-"

"Just tell the ships we can contact to pass my orders along to whoever else they can contact!" called back Skywalker as he marched out of the bridge, followed by Ahsoka and Artoo, "Besides, I'm sure they'll see what we're doing and follow suit!"

"R...Right General", said Yularen hesitantly, as he looked back out of the bridge, and at the massive fleet before him. This was going to be one hell of a fight.

* * *

 _ **Lucid Voice**_

"Sirs, the Republic fleet has entered the system", called out an OOM Pilot droid, "But they seemed to have arrived via a route straight from the Core Worlds."

"What?" asked Kalani.

"The Republic fleet has entered the system. But they-"

"I heard you. But that does not compute. Why would they send a fleet straight from the core worlds when they had one closer to us?" Kalani then looked at B1-268, who was standing next to him, "Order all ships to reposition ourselves against the Republic fleet. Recall all droid fighters, and open fire on the Republic ships when we are realigned."

"Roger roger."

"Skywalker is in that fleet", said Dooku, "And Kenobi. I can sense them."

"Irrelevant", replied Kalani, "They endanger my mission. They must be terminated."

"You realise that you cannot possibly win against-"

"Their systems are most likely scrambled from the nebulas", shot back Kalani, whom still was looking away from Dooku, as the droid folded his arms behind his back, "They will be disorientated, confused, and with low moral. This gives us the advantage. Our systems are fully up and running. They will be destroyed by our superior firepower and coordination."

"Skywalker has been quite capable of pulling victory from impeccable odds-"

"Reputations are irrelevant at this time. Those who interfere with my mission with be disposed of. Even you."

* * *

 **Arquitens-class command cruiser _Tellstar_**

"Sir!" called out Commander Cody to Obi-Wan, on the bridge of the _Tellstar_ , "The Separatist fleet is turning around! They're coming this way!"

"Yes Cody, I've noticed", replied Obi-Wan. He hadn't actually noticed, though. He was still in shock of both seeing the monolith again, and the state which it was in, "Are our systems operational yet?"

"Not yet sir", answered a clone naval officer, "But we're working on it. If the droids don't fire on us, all systems will be back online in 10 minutes. Until then, we'll be shooting blindly at-"

A red beam of energy then collided with the ship to the left of the _Tellstar_ ; the Nebulon-B prototype ship _Vanguard_. And another. And another. The _Vanguard_ responded by spraying blue bolts of energy at the Separatist fleet, hoping to hit something. Multiple other ships began to do the same, following the herd, spraying blue laser blasts at the hostile fleet, while a few ships began to move out of position, charging at the enemy. In a mere matter of minutes, it was absolute pandemonium; red and blue beams of light flying off into the void of space, hoping to hit something of value to the opposite side. GR-75 transports began to act as bait of the smaller Separatist ships, with hostile Gozanti cruisers and GR-45 transports breaking away from the main hostile fleet to chase them.

Obi-Wan then saw a new threat heading towards them, in the form of dozens of droid Starfighters, each one launching missiles at the fleet, some impacting directly into their target ships, while others flew off into the vacuum of space, destined to eventually impact against an object, lest they continue on forever and ever. One missile hit the _Tellstar_ just below it's bridge, shaking the entire ship, and sparking some of the controls of the bridge, before returning to normal.

"Shields are at 84%!"

"Sensors are still down!"

"Then use your eyes! It's not like you haven't got a pair!"

"I can't hit any of them!"

"There are too many droid fighters!"

"Shields at 79%!"

"Take out as many as you can!"

"Hull integrity failing!"

"General!" called out Cody, "The _Vanguard's_ going down!"

Obi-Wan then looked to the left of the bridge window, to see the _Vanguard_ up in flames, and being torn apart. A Recusant-class light destroyer was pilling all of it's fire onto the Nebulon-B, creating several holes in the ship, and causing the engines to shut down. One shot pierced right through it's generator, resulting in all systems on the ship shutting down. Another shot pierced right through the ship's bridge, evaporating all inside, and resulting in several Clone crewmen being sucked out and asphyxiating in the cold vacuum of space, becoming frozen, wasted lives, once filled with potential, now lost forever to space, and whatever laid beyond mortal life.

Suddenly, the _Vanguard_ split in two, its thin midsection crumbling apart, as the front and the back parts of the frigate detonated into several large chunks, resulting in a huge fireball, that sent huge chunks of metal into the direction of other ships, causing huge dents in the armour of those ships, and creating a massive debris field that spread itself out across the whole of the Republic fleet. One piece of debris smashed right into the bridge of an Arquitens-class light cruiser- the _Flensor_ \- resulting in the rest of the cruiser detonating in a fireball, adding more debris to the field of death and carnage.

Obi-Wan then noticed a single escape pod in the debris of the _vanguard_ , and inside it was Captain Jan Dodonna, and his clone command crew, signalling to the _Tellstar_ through the front window of the pod.

"Can we get some one to retrieve that pod", asked Obi-Wan to Cody, "We need to recover all of the survivors we can-"

"Droid Bombers incoming!" called out one of the clone naval officers.

Obi-Wan and Cody then looked out of the bridge window to see 2 Hyena-class bombers heading right for the Tellstar, weaving through the debris field, and occasionally making their own path using their missiles.

"Brace for impact!" called out Obi-Wan as he, Cody and the crew members grabbed onto the railings of the bridge, and whatever else they could find, all the while, the bombers got closer and closer.

One of them fired a missile.

Obi-Wan prepared for the end.

An explosion was heard.

...

...

...

...

Obi-Wan looked up from the railing to see that nothing had changed. Everything was intact, and everyone, to his knowledge was alive and well.

"Damage report!" ordered Obi-Wan.

"Everything's still intact sir", a clone naval officer responded, "They missed us."

"General...", muttered Cody.

Obi-Wan turned around to face his second in command, half expecting an answer immediately, but found that his gaze was else where. That was when he realised a terrible truth.

"Oh no..."

Obi-Wan quickly spun around to the left side of the bridge viewing point, and sadly confirmed his suspicions:

The bombers were aiming for the escape pod, not the Tellstar.

Just in front of the bridge, floating gently from the left side of the bridge, to the right, was the escape pod, cracked open, scorched, and burning, with pieces of it's metal gently bouncing off the window, leaving nothing but a tiny speck of grime. Amongst the metal, the chard remains of those who were, only a minute ago inside the pod, lingered, making themselves a home amongst the wreckage. Burnt skeletons, with tiny pieces of chargrilled flesh clinging onto the bone with all it's might, floated through the vacuum, their mouths wide open, silently screaming into the void forever and ever. All Obi-Wan could do to eulogise the dead, was let out a sad sigh, filled with the despair for what could have been for the lives of the duly departed.

Suddenly, a Vulture droid quickly shot past the bridge of the ship, followed by a quicker Republic V-Wing, firing blue blasts at the droid fighter. Beyond the wreckage, Obi-Wan saw that Republic fighters had begun a futile counterattack against the superior Separatist force.

"Sir", said one of the clone naval officers, "We just received a chain message from General Skywalker. He says to launch all fighters."

"That explains why our Starfighters are out there", replied Obi-Wan, "And no doubt Anakin's knee deep in that mess. Is there a way for us to retreat, or even call for reinforcements? We're being obliterated out here."

"No sir. The debris field has become to thick for us to move through, and our communications are still scrambled. We're trapped here."

"Then we'll just have to fight it out. Hopefully we'll live to tell the tale."

* * *

 **Anakin's ETA-2 Interceptor**

 _"Master, for the record, this is insane_ ", said Ahsoka from her Starfighter over the comms, as she and Anakin flew close to each over, as did 3 Z-95 Headhunters, acting more as a pack of wolves than a unified and coordinated unit, herding together closely for protection, lest they become separated and become the hunted instead of the hunters. They had just flown out of the hanger bay of the _Integrity_ , and had just entered the madness of the Battle of the Chrelythiumn System; A GR-75 and Separatist Gozanti cruiser had slammed into each other, detonating into a fireball, engulfing a nearby Hyena bomber in the flames, before dying out, and being absorbed into the ever growing debris field, while a flaming Y-Wing crashed into the bridge of a Munificent-class frigate, creating a massive explosion that started a chain reaction which split the ship in half, and sent one part of it smashing into another frigate, further adding to the chaos of the fight. All the while, Starfighters from both factions danced around each other in an elegant, but maddening ballet of death, each dancer trying to gain the edge on their foes before the hand of death grasped their throat, and pulled them to whatever lied beyond the mortal realm.

"What part of this is insane, Snips: the fact that we're flying into this with no sensors or comms over a long distance, the part where we have to stick together in order to speak to each other, or possibly that we're outgunned, outfought, outthought, and our basic strategy right now is spray laser fire at the tinnies and pray that we hit them?"

 _"All of it! All of what you've just said! We're completely out of our element here!"_

"Hey, we've been in worse!"

 _"When have we been in worse!?"_

 _"The commander has a point, sir_ ", said Hawk from his Z-95.

Suddenly, the squadron came under fire. The Separatist dreadnaught was laying down fire on them, spraying red laser fire and missiles at the group of fighters.

"Alright Blue Squadron, form up!" ordered Anakin, "If that ship is firing missiles at us, then that must mean that it's shields are lowered. If we rush it, I think we can destroy it and make a hole in that fleet!"

 _"General, our targeting computers are still out!"_ warned Kickback over the comms, _"We won't be able to get a lock on any important systems on that ship!"_

"Then use your eyes, Kickback! Sometimes they tend to be better than any computer!"

 _"Right general. Prepping missiles now!"_

* * *

"Sirs, a squadron of Republic Starfighters is heading right for us!" warned an OOM pilot droid.

"You said their systems would be scrambled", mocked Dooku.

"They must be relying on their own eyes instead of a targeting system", responded Kalani in his usual stoic voice, "Activate point-defence laser turrets and destroy them."

"Roger roger", said the pilot droid.

A loud explosion was heard, and Kalani and Dooku turned to the right of the bridge to see that a heavily damaged Republic GR-75 transport had slammed into the side of a Recusant destroyer, detonating, and taken a massive chunk of the hull of the destroyer in the process. In front of the bridge, a V-Wing and Tri-fighter collided with each other, becoming a twisted wreak of metal, and turning the pilot into a fine red paste.

"This is madness", barked Dooku, "I order you to get us out of here before-"

"This is not madness, Count Dooku", coldly stated Kalani, "This is war, and I shall see it through to the end. Even if I am destroyed."

* * *

 _"Missiles away!"_

The squadron then fired it's payload at the dreadnaught, hoping to hit any critical system, when suddenly, it's point defence turrets targeted the projectiles and destroyed them, before they could even get close to the ship. The turrets then targeted Blue Squadron, and released a volley of red laser fire on them.

 _"Kriffing hell, they're targeting us"_ shouted Swoop over the comms.

"Blue Squadron, scatter!" ordered Anakin.

 _"But master"_ , protested Ahsoka, _"We'll lose contact with each oth-"_

"Just do it, Ahsoka!"

 _"... Yes, master"_ , Ahsoka's solemn voice sounded over the radio.

The squadron then scattered, and quickly lost contact with each other: Kickback and Swoop flew back to the fleet, keeping in close proximity with each other as to be able to coordinate between them, Hawk flew other the dreadnaught and began chasing after a Vulture droid, and Ahsoka swooped away to see if Obi-Wan was still alive. Anakin, meanwhile, flew along the side of the dreadnaught, dodging the various pieces of debris from the battle, and the occasional droid fighter.

 _*Beep beep whoop boop_ , went Artoo as they flew near the engines of the dreadnaught. The droid's speech appeared on a screen in Anakin's cockpit.

"No, Artoo, we're not going to charge the blockade. We're gonna take down this dreadnaught."

Then, a missile shot passed Anakin's Interceptor, and he looked behind him to see a HMP droid gunship firing all it's weapons at it, followed by 2 Tri-fighters.

"And I think I know how."

Anakin then swung his Starfighter around, and flew to the top of the dreadnaught, with the droid gunship and fighters firing at him. Instead of hitting their intended target, the droids ended up shooting the ships main engines instead, crippling it's movement. Anakin then flew along the top of the dreadnaught, with the droids still firing on him, hitting central modules of the ship instead. The ships point defence turrets targeted Anakin, and began to fire on his ship, but ended up hitting the two Tri-fighters instead, causing them to crash and destroy the central communication modules on the ship. The gunship then fired a string of missiles at Anakin, to which he pulled an emergency maneuverer, and flew between two antennas at the front of the ship, near the bridge and flew under the very bridge itself. The gunship failed to calculate a successful maneuverer in time, slammed into the two antennas, detonated, and slammed into the back section of the bridge, resulting in a large explosion, that crippled the front of the ship. Other parts of the ship began to detonate, crippling the ship, and resulting in the main hanger decompressing, and all the droids in the hanger being sucked into space.

"Yeah, we got them, Artoo", said Anakin with a smile on his face.

 _*Beep boop beep._

Then, Anakin noticed something. Over the course of the battle, he had forgotten about the monolith; he had gotten too into the zone, and had blocked out everything else, except what was in front of him, as usual. He looked at the monolith, and the first thing that he noticed, was that there were 3 Separatist supply ships guarding it, constantly sending out, and resupplying Separatist droid fighters, and also acting as ship snipers, firing off tracking missiles that pierced into Republic fighters, and exposed their pilots to the vacuum of space.

The next thing that he noticed, was that the monolith was disintegrating.

The monolith's surface was dissolving into dust, then to atoms, then to nothing. In a blue glow, the top of the monolith had completely disappeared, and was spreading. The pieces of the monolith that had come off had also dissolved, turning to nothing. It was like water to a sandcastle. The monolith was dissolving from top to bottom, leaving nothing behind.

Except it didn't leave nothing. Where the monolith once was, there was a small black hole, that began to suck in the Separatist supply ships. As they were sucked in, they slammed into each other, resulting in a fiery explosion, that left nothing but rubble and debris. After a few moments, where the supply ships had once been, there was nothing.

But the black hole started getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until it was the size of the monolith, and began to suck everything into it.

Anakin felt the pull of it on his ship, and began to panic. He tried to struggle against the gravitational pull of the black hole, but to no avail. He then tried to use the force to pull his ship free, also to know avail. He started to panic even more, and began to try and call someone- anyone at this point- on the comms.

"Mayday! Mayday! This is Anakin Skywalker in the blind, code 2-2-2... Oh kriff it, I'M BEING SUCKED INTO A KRIFFING BLACK HOLE! Please, does anyone-"

Then he heard it. A voice in his head. A voice that told him to let go. To not fear. To surrender himself to the pull. A voice that sounded young and hopeful, yet old and weary. So he did. He calmed down. He let go of the controls, and he allowed himself to be taken to whatever lied beyond.

 _"Save us, Anakin Skywalker. Save us from ourselves."_

* * *

"Sirs, the ship has suffered extensive damage", reported B1-268, "There are fires on all decks, and the engines and hanger bay have been destroyed."

"We must get to the escape pods", replied Kalani, "And move to our secondary command ship."

"No, Kalani", coldly said Dooku, "Now we must leave. Whatever your objective here is, you have, and will most likely fail. It is time for us to leave."

"I will do no such thing", retorted Kalani, "No matter what, my mission parameters still stand. If I must defy you more to complete it, then so be it."

"In that case", said Dooku as he ignited his lightsaber, "You are relieved of duty."

Kalani barely had anytime to turn around, before a red blade was plunged into his chest, right through his central processing unit.

"N-no... my... mission... my... purpose-"

Dooku then pulled his lightsaber out, and proceeded to chop Kalani's head clean off, permanently terminating the Super Tactical Droid. B1-268 fired a shot from his blaster at Dooku, but he merely deflected it, and then cut B1-268 in half, lengthways. The rest of the droids in the bridge got out their blasters to try and kill the count, but he simply lifted then all up with the force, and slammed them all together, resulting in a pile of twisted metal limbs and wiring.

"Such pathetic insolence", scoffed Dooku as he deactivated his lightsaber, "Now, to the-"

Suddenly, the entire bridge began to shake violently, forcing Dooku to grab hold of the chair that was in the middle of the large room for support. Fires began to erupt from the consoles, and the glass window ports of the bridge began to crack and shake. It was here that Dooku noticed that the ship was rotating against it's will, and so where the other Separatist ships. Dooku then noticed that between the ships constant spinning, there was what appeared to be a black hole, pulling in all in it's wake.

 _This is it for me_ , thought Dooku, _Utter oblivion._

* * *

Across the entire battle zone, both sides immediately changed their priorities when they saw the ever expanding black hole, pulling everything in it's wake into it's ever expanding maw. All the ships in the immediate area began to fly away from the black hole, trying to escape it's monstrous pull, but to no avail. The giant anomaly in space just kept growing bigger and bigger, encompassing everything around it. Nothing was safe. Soon, everything in the immediate zone- ships, debris, asteroids, nebulas- was gone, absorbed by the black hole.

Then it collapsed in on itself. It began to implode, sucking itself into it, creating a massive temporary tear in space and time. The entire Chrelythiumn System became a temporal no go zone for about 2 minutes. But for those two minutes, it felt like 2 billion years. Any living thing that was there was displaced from time. Entire civilisations were built and destroyed in the space of a second, new species were created and obliterated, all in the blink of an eye. Then, the black hole exploded, in a magnificent flash of white light that could be seen from all across the galaxy. After the massive detonation, there was nothing left. The entire Chrelythiumn System was empty. Nothing was there. No asteroids. No stars. No comets. No nebulas. No warnings for what was to come. Except one.

Darkness. Nothing but darkness.


	5. Homecoming-part 4: Worlds apart

_"They come from the shadows, invaders and all. It's time to bring them into the light." **  
**_ **?** _ **  
**_

* * *

 **?**

The first thing that Ahsoka thought when she woke up, was that her mouth tasted like she just swallowed a bitter piece of bread, and tried to make it go down with dirt from an animal farm. She quickly gathered up the saliva in her mouth, and spat it out onto the front viewport of her Interceptor, trying to rid herself of the terrible taste. It was of no use though, as the bitter flavour still remained.

The second thing that she thought, or rather, remembered, was a collection of memories of events that had transpired over the last 3 days which brought her to where she was now.

The third thing to cross her mind, was the fact that the black clouds in the sky were too thick for her to see through, meaning that she was flying blindly, and that she could just suddenly ram into something, and explode into a million pieces, and she would never be able to see it.

The fourth thought to emerge in the mind of Ahsoka, was that there were clouds in space. Before whatever happened with the Mortis Monolith happened, she and the entire Republic fleet were in a vacuum of space, not in the atmosphere of a planet. Obviously, this meant that now, she was in the orbit of a planet, but how she suddenly jumped to a planet's atmosphere, Ahsoka did not know. Most likely, it had something to do with the Mortis Monolith, which meant that there was the good possibility that she was flying through the atmosphere of Mortis.

The final thing to cross Ahsoka's mind, was that she was still flying.

Ahsoka, in a panic, quickly grabbed the controls of her fighter, and started pressing buttons randomly, in a attempt to confirm that her Starfighter had power. After a few accidental spins that would make only her master proud, she confirmed that she still had control of her ship. At least, the flying controls. There seemed to be no power to the communications, and her R2 unit, R7-A7, had completely shut down.

'Okay', Ahsoka thought, 'I'm on my own, with minimum control over my Starfighter's functions, my R2 unit is down, I have no idea where I am, and I have no way of either seeing through these clouds, or contacting anyone. Yep, just another day in the office.'

Ahsoka then came up with an idea. Maybe she could use her force bond with Anakin to find where he was, and make her way to him. However, this meant that she would either need to peer into his thoughts to send her message, or directly tap into his mind, and see what he sees, both of which were incredible painful for both sides of the bond. It was risky, but Ahsoka had little choice in the matter. It was either she bare a little pain, or she continued to fly blindly through the thick clouds she blindly flew into something, and she didn't really feel like dying, so option A it was.

Ahsoka reached out through the force, attempting to latch on to Anakin's mind, but found that her efforts were blocked. There was something here, in this strange place that was blocking her force bond with Anakin. It felt like the force was being manipulated to block her from finding her master, by some unknown entity.

Ahsoka then felt cold. Cold and scared. How could a single entity manipulate the force to such a degree, that they could block the mental connection between Jedi? Could a regular Jedi do that? Could anyone do that? Ahsoka didn't know, as she hadn't completed her training yet. There was still a lot that she didn't know, as she still had a long way to go before she could become a Jedi Knight, so was it possible for someone to break the mental bond between two Jedi? She figured that it was only possible if one of the people in the bond was the one to break it, but she figured that outside interference wasn't possible. So, what was blocking her?

She then decided to try and reach out, and sense any other life signs in the area, but she found that she was still being blocked by the strange presence. She reached out further. Blocked. Further out. Blocked. Soon, she had reached out as far as she could go, and she still found herself mentally caged by this mysterious force.

Ahsoka felt alone. Yet she also felt like she was constantly being watched. She had no one to turn to, yet she was being scrutinized by a powerful, and very alien presence, that had shrouded itself in darkness. It felt so cold. So evil.

Then, a small pain began to build up in Ahsoka's head. It was small, but it was there. She rubbed her left head-tail with one of her hands, assuming that part of the skin on her head-tail was inflamed. She shuddered from the sensitivity, as Togrutan head-tails were know to be notoriously sensitive to even the slightest touch, because of... evolutionary change? Ahsoka didn't know, and frankly, she didn't care to know. It would most likely lead to a boring lecture from master Shaak Ti about the Togrutan anatomy. And she was definitely not ready for that talk.

Ahsoka continued to gently rub the burning part of her head-tail, when the pain suddenly, yet gently increased. Ahsoka winched from it, but she put it off, and continued to gently caress the hurting part of her skin. Then, the pain got worse, as the area where it hurt suddenly got bigger, and Ahsoka became more firm. Then, the pain increased once more, this time encompassing the whole of her left head-tail. She seared from the pain, and she used both hands to try and sooth the pain. But then, the pain got worse, and had spread to her montrals and right and back head-tails. She clasped her left and right head-tails, and began to scream from the pain, now encompassing the whole of her brain, and unique Togrutan biology. It felt like she was being burned alive, and her skin was being seared off with a razorblade, slowly and methodically cutting off chunks of both her body, and her mind, until all that was left off both was a bumbling husk of a once strong girl.

Her mind was also under attack as well. Ahsoka was being mentally bombarded pictures of suffering, pain, and death. Weapons of mass destruction being used to kill countless lives, and soldiers tearing their enemies apart in a mad rush of adrenaline, devolving into savages and barbarians, all in a bid to survive. She saw children hanging themselves in the hundreds, and throwing themselves off of buildings, in an attempt to escape the growing nightmare. She saw people being frozen alive in a blizzard of epic proportions, and friends mutilating each other in order to live for a few minutes longer. Then, she saw 3 figures, battling a monster that threatened all of existence, and it's evil master. One cloaked in darkness, yet had a heart of grey, another a leader and warrior, but whom carried a great burden, and the last, a student to the warrior, whom had a heart of regret, and yet an unbreakable spirit. Ahsoka didn't understand. She couldn't process the images that she was seeing, yet she was seeing them in her mind. They seemed so alien to her, that her mind lacked the proper ability to even comprehend what they were.

Ahsoka then realised why she was feeling pain. Somehow, the suffering and negative emotions that could be seen in the images were so powerful, that they were causing her both mental and physical pain. She didn't understand. How was this possible? There was nothing in the records of the Jedi that she had read which said that pain from mental images was possible. So, how was she in pain? Maybe it had something to do with the entity that was observing her. Most likely, that was the case, but was it really so powerful that it could cause mental pain by just showing mental images? Was it a power that anyone could gain? Did the Jedi know of this power? Did the Council keep it hidden from everyone else?

Suddenly, the pain stopped. In the blink of an eye, the searing pain left Ahsoka, only to be replaced with doubt. How, and why, did that happen? Did the mysterious entity that had her in their sights want to prove something? Was there a purpose to the flashes? How was it all even possible?

Ahsoka still couldn't comprehend the flashes that she saw, as her mind somehow was finding it difficult to process them, but the effect that they had still remained with her. She felt immense sorrow in her heart, but for whom the sorrow was directed for, she knew not. She just felt doubt in her ability to comprehend the force. Were there powers in the force that she wasn't aware of? Were the Jedi Masters and Council hiding them away from the rest of the Jedi? Were the Council doing the right thing by hiding those powers away?

Ahsoka then tried to shoo the thoughts of doubts out of her head. What was she doing? She had been a Jedi for all her life, long before she had a say in the matter. She had to trust the Council in making the right decisions, and go along with whatever they said, as it was obviously the right decisions.

Right?

This was where Ahsoka began to experience doubt. Did the Council know what was the right thing to do? Was Anakin right in not trusting the Council? Was there things that the Jedi needed to know, that the Council was keeping secret? Ahsoka felt scared. She had never experience doubt like this before, with the Jedi Council, of all people. They were probably the wisest in the order, yet she began to doubt them, and their ability to do the right thing.

 _Look out_

?

Ahsoka was confused. What was that? Was that the force trying to tell her something. Instinctively, she ceased daydreaming, and looked to the front of her Interceptor.

It was only then, that she saw the giant tower in front of her.

Ahsoka barely had time to panic before her fighter slammed into the side of the tower, causing the left side of her ship to burst into flames, and her astromech unit to be completely destroyed. Her ship then began to spin out of control, leaving Ahsoka unable to comprehend her surroundings outside of the ship. Sparks and flames began to fill the cockpit, smothering and burning Ahsoka, and metal fragments began to pierce into Ahsoka's skin, tearing up her once smooth and mark free skin, and even piercing her bone.

Her ship then slammed hard on the barren, lifeless ground, smashing apart as it slide across the cold hard floor. Ahsoka tried to use the force to shield her from the worst of the crash, but all that she could do was slightly slow down the speed of her fighter, which didn't really help, as it began to roll uncontrollably across the ground, smashing into several different pieces, and slamming into several strange industrial buildings. Ahsoka was left flinging around in the battered cockpit like a ragdoll, her skin and bones being torn apart, and the metal frame of the cockpit being caked in blood. Eventually, the cockpit stopped rolling, and came to a gentle stop next to what looked like a sentry tower.

Ahsoka was left lying on the ceiling of the cockpit, as it had stopped upside down, and looked down at herself. One of her arms had been torn off by the joint, and the veins and arteries had been pulled out, and blood was pouring out of the grievous wound. Her other arm had been pierced by a piece of glass, and was covered in blood. Her right leg had been broken, and was laying in a way that shouldn't be physically possible, and her left leg had been bent back so much, that the bone had been torn out, and was very visible. One of her montrals had been smashed open, and though Togrutan montrals were typically hollow, it still hurt like hell. Her head-tails had also been torn, and one of them was so damaged, that the skin had been torn off, and part of her brain in her head-tails was visible. She then saw that there was a large piece of metal frame piercing her stomach, and another piece of glass that had pierced through her chest, barely missing her heart, which was now becoming weaker and weaker with every single passing moment.

She then looked around to the area beyond the shattered metal frame of her destroyed fighter, and saw around her what looked like a massive military complex. Large sentry towers stood in random locations in the area, in an seemingly uncoordinated fashion, while larger towers stood in silent over watch, supporting what looked like large ant air guns pointed towards the cloudy heavens, which was packed with fighters and large capital ships (Ahsoka recognised several of the ships in the sky as Separatist ships, but they appeared more streamlined, were heavily modified, and covered in black and red paint. There were also what looked like fighters that the clankers used, but they too had been heavily modified, and some of them even connected to what looked like deployment stations, that hung above the buildings like vultures. The other ships, Ahsoka did not recognise, as they were designs that Ahsoka had never seen before). Several other large buildings also stood across the area, connected to each other by bridges suspended in red light, and several of those buildings had large chimneys, each one releasing black smoke into the sky, thickening the clouds. Ahsoka then saw 3 large pipelines, carrying what looked like lava, towards a large building, which connected to the tower that Ahsoka had flown into.

Ahsoka then recognised the tower that she had flown into as part of the cathedral that the Son had taken her too back on Mortis, which meant... She was on Mortis.

The cathedral was still recognisable, but had been heavily modified. The once glowing green orbs at the surface level of the building had been shattered, and in their place, were what looked like power generators that glowed red with energy, and connected by cables, which extended to the entrance of the cathedral. The large glowing green orb at the top of the cathedral tower was also shattered, and from it, glowing green smoke flowed from it, acting as a locater amongst the red and black clouds. Large AA guns stood in place around the cathedral, aimed at the sky, and spotlights pointed to the ground, looking for any trespassers. Large landing pads also littered the cathedral, and a smaller tower also stood next to the cathedral, connected to the main building by glowing red cables, and several bridges of light.

Ahsoka then squinted her weak eyes, as several spotlights then trained onto the wreckage of her ship, and red lights and a klaxon began to shine and sound throughout the large complex of buildings. She then saw a strange alien ship hover over the still flaming wreckage, and train it's guns on her.

'This is it', thought Ahsoka in fear, 'I'm gonna die. I don't wanna die like this. I don't wanna die in general. Oh god... it hurts. Everything hurts.'

Ahsoka then looked to her left, and saw 3 figures approaching her. One of them was a B2 Super Battle Droid, but it was painted black, and was covered in red markings. It had extensive armour added to it, and had a tiny missile launcher on the top of it's right side. The most stiking thing about it, though, was the fact that it had 2 larges guns on it, one on each arm, and they both had large ammo clips attached to them. The other 2 were B1 Battle Droids, and they also had extensive changes to them. Both of them were painted black, with red markings on them, and on their chests, they wore a strange blood red symbol that Ahsoka had never seen before. Their backpacks that B1's typically had were now built in to them, and they lacked an antenna that B1's regularly had. Their eyes glowed a blood red, and they wielded heavily modified E5 Blaster rifles, that now had stocks, strange scopes, long range barrels, and ammo clips that were inserted on the bottom of the gun, instead of on the side.

The 3 droids walked over to the wreckage of the cockpit, and one of the B1s got up to the cockpit, and knelt down, looking at the mangled remains of the barely alive occupant.

"Well, this is a surprise", said the B1, in a voice that sounded almost lifelike, yet clearly robotic, unlike the regular tinnies that Ahsoka fought, "Whoever this guy is, he's still alive."

"I think that's a girl", said the other B1, in a slightly higher voice.

"Don't care."

Ahsoka then started to form a word in her mouth, through the unimaginable pain, "H-h-h..."

"Huh?" went the lead B1.

"H-help... m-m-me... p-p-please..."

"Oh, god", said the B1 after fully seeing the damage to Ahsoka, "I'm not surprised you want me to give you a hand, girly. You look like shit."

"I'm seeing Lightsabers", said the B2 in a deep voice, "Not Sith design (Not that there's a difference). We've got a Jedi here."

The lead B1 then stood up straight, and aimed it's gun at Ahsoka's head, "Well then. That changes things. If I had known we were dealing with a Jedi, then I would've offed you when I saw you. I mean, Shockwave said to spare our Sith guest (Probs because he wants to kill the Sith himself), but he never said anything about Jedi."

"Double tap", said the B2, "Heart and brain. It makes sure that they're dead. From what the scriptures say, Jedi and Sith are notoriously hard to kill."

"Sure thing. Well then, Jedi. Sorry to say, but it's time to pay the reaper."

"Wait, Plasma", said the other B1, "We can't just kill her. I mean look at her. She's just a kid. She could only be a few hundred years old."

... What?

"It's a Jedi, Sparky", said the lead B1, who apparently had the name 'Plasma', "It needs to die."

"Who say's so? The scriptures?" said 'Sparky'.

"Yes, the scriptures! They clearly state that the Jedi and Sith are hypocritical D-bags that only destroy whatever they touch. If this... thing is a Jedi, then it needs to be put down like a sick dog. Now."

'Thing'? The droid didn't even consider Ahsoka as a person. Just a object. An animal which needed to die. Ahsoka never felt so scared for her life. She could feel her heartbeat slowing down as tears began to well up in her eyes.

"For god's sake, Plasma, those scriptures have got to be over 30,000 years old! How do we know if they're even accurate? I'm telling you, we don't know who this girl even is. She might be useful to us, if we give her the chance."

"I hate to say it", said the B2, "But Sparky's got a point. If this girl really is a Jedi, then maybe she'll spill on why and how she and the other Jedi and Sith are here on this planet, and how we can get them off of our world."

"You were the one who advocated for the double tap treatment, Grind-or!" angrily yelled Plasma.

"Yeah, well, that was before I heard Sparky's argument", replied Grind-or.

"(Christ, I wish Redfire was here) Fine. Sparky, call down a sorcerer, and get them to heal this thing. We'll need to get it out before it goes nighty night."

Sparky then looked away from Plasma, and tapped a button on the side of his head. After a few moments, he tapped the button again, and turned to Plasma, "They're already on their way. Everyone in the entire region saw that crash, not just the city.

"Right, then call Shockwave, and tell them that a Jedi crashed into the city. Purpose is currently unknown, but we're gonna lock it up before it expires."

"Won't the boss be preoccupied with leading the Tribe of Retribution against the Jedi?"

"Probably, but he'll want to here this. He won't like it, but he'll need to know that we got a Jedi, and a Sith guest. Grind-Or, let's get this thing out of here before it goes _bleugh."_

The last thing that Ahsoka saw, before her eyes closed, was the 3 droids pulling the wreckage apart, several other figures approaching the scene, and a metal hand reaching towards her...

* * *

 **Mortis(?)**

 _"Anakin! ANAKIN!"_

Anakin jolted awake at the loud yelling of Obi-Wan's voice over the comms, and lasily rubbed his forehead, feeling relatively fatigued, and let out a loud yawn. He then heard Artoo let out a bleep over the comms, telling him to just reply already.

"Force's sake, Obi-Wan, I was in the middle of a nap", sleepily replied Anakin, "A really good nap, may I just say."

 _"You were sleeping in your fighter?"_

Anakin then remembered where he was, and quickly grabbed the controls of his interceptor to make sure he wasn't crashing and burning into whatever laid below. Or above. Or whatever.

* _Beep boop weboop boop boop._

"Thank's buddy", said Anakin, in relief that Artoo was commandeering the fighter while he was out. He then turned back to the comms, "So, I'm gonna assume that everyone else is sleeping like a baby. Lazy troopers, I say."

 _"Anakin, everyone else is awake. Tired, but awake."_

 _"Blue 1, Hawk here"_ , said Hawk over the comms.

 _"Blue 2, Kickback up and at them."_

 _"Blue 3, Swoop, reporting in."_

 _"Oddball here. Ready to roll."_

 _"All active ships are reporting in, generals"_ , said Admiral Yularen over the comms.

"Well, at least all our systems are up and running", said Anakin with a sigh, remembering the terrible fighting state that they were in when they arrived in the Chrelythiumn System, "Wait, where even are we, anyways?"

 _"Well"_ , said Obi-Wan with hesitation in his voice, _"I have to assume that, well, we're in the atmosphere of Mortis, though, I'm not too sure."_

Anakin then looked beyond the large Republic fleet, and saw the large planet below, though if it actual could be considered a planet, he did not know. The surface of the world below was cracked, and several chunks of the planet had come off, only being held to the planet by long cables of rotten flesh, that extended down through the holes in the planet surface. Some of these chunks of planet had floated off into space so far, that the cables that held them to the planet extended to beyond the atmosphere of the large world, piercing the heavens. The surface of the world was grey, and barren. Any wildlife that once existed on the world was long gone, and red cracks of energy were spread across the surface of the world below. Some of these red energy cracks shot up red lightning from the surface to red glowing clouds in the sky, creating unstable balls of pulsing energy. The other clouds in the sky were thick and white, and the sky was heavy with them, with only a few pockets of faint light punching through them, leaving the surface of the world in a constant darkness. Through the pockets of faint light, it could become clear that there the sun of the world was weak, and dying, and that there were no other stars or worlds that were visible in the sky. Anakin then noticed that they were rather close to the ground, as he could faintly see the details of the barren world below, including the remains of the once floating mountains that littered the planet, and what appeared to be the flaming ruins of the ships that were destroyed in the last battle.

"Are you sure that this is Mortis, Obi-Wan?" asked Anakin, "Because this is a big change from when we were on it."

 _"Yes, I agree. Plus, it feels like the force here is weak and fleeting. Like we're right above a corpse."_

"Obi-Wan, with all due respect, how can a planet be alive? That shouldn't be possible."

 _"Well, when we were on Mortis, not a lot there seemed possible either. If we are indeed above Mortis, then the death of the Ones must've done something to affect the entire planet."_

 _"Begging your pardon, Generals"_ , interrupted Admiral Yularen, _"But where are we? And what on Naboo are you talking about?"_

 _"Long story Admiral"_ , replied Obi-Wan, _"On more pressing matters, what are we looking at with casualties? The last battle was particularly brutal."_

 _"Well, from what I've gathered, we've lost 4 ships. 1 Nebulon-B, an Arquitens-class light cruiser, and 2 GR-75 transports. Starfighter casualties are about 167 fighters, and other ships have suffered damage as well, causing casualties of at least 1,400. In total, about 1610 in Casualties."_

"Well, I'm sure that Ahsoka won't be happy about that", said Anakin. To be fair, he wasn't happy about that either. He and Ahsoka had grown rather close to the troops under their command, and they viewed them as brothers. Ahsoka in general had grown rather fond of the clones of the 501st, and viewed them as brothers, who had taken to calling her vod'ika, meaning younger brother/sister, while she in turn learnt a little Mando'a, and started calling them her vod, meaning brother/sister. Every time that a trooper was killed, one way or another, Anakin could feel the regret and sadness that Ahsoka felt, in anguish that one of her vod had passed from the physical realm, and flew away into the great unknown beyond life.

Anakin then realised something; he hadn't heard from Ahsoka throughout this entire conversation.

"Admiral, is Ahsoka on this channel? Because if she is, then she's awfully quiet."

 _"Um, general, we were unable to find Commander Tano on the comms."_

"What?!"

 _"We don't know where she is, sir. It's possible that her communications are still down, and she's not on our sensor, or the other option..."_

"No, I refuse to believe that! I can still sense her in the force."

 _"So can I Anakin"_ , said Obi-Wan, _"But she's fading. I don't know how long we've got until we lose her."_

"I'm gonna try and find her. If I use our bond as a signal, I can track it to it's-"

Suddenly, the comms overloaded, and a loud screeching noise could be heard over the entire fleet. The noise was so deafening, no one could hear their own thought, much less each other. Anakin slammed his hands against his ears, trying to block out the high pitch noise with his own hands. However, it proved to have no affect, as the noise only increased, even causing a crack to appear in one of the windows of his Interceptor. Then, as quickly as it started, the noise ended, leaving those who heard it with a ringing in their head, and in a state of confusion.

 _"Jedi"_ , said a metallic voice over the comms, _"Turn back now, lest you feel my wraith."_

Anakin was confused. Who, or what, was this voice? It sounded so cold and metallic, almost like a droid, yet so lifelike, and filled with the emotions of a living being, who has lived a harsh life, much like himself.

 _"Have you nothing to say?"_

Anakin was startled. Could whatever was over the comms hear them? "What are you?"

 _"Your reckoning, lest you head my warnings and leave this world, Skywalker."_

Anakin was in shock. Whatever had found it's way into the comms knew who he was.

 _"What is your answer?"_

"M-my Padawan is on this world, somewhere, whatever you are, I'm sure of it! I'm not leaving until I find her, and if I have to kill you to get her back, then so be it!"

 _"You would threaten me with death? Such a trivial threat, and one which is laughable, at this time of my life."_

"I'm not laughing."

 _"Nor am I."_

"I am not leaving this place without Ahsoka."

 _"Heh, so be it, Jedi. But just so you know, mine will be the hands that bring about your end."_

Suddenly, a massive mechanical roar of power could be heard, and a massive horde of red lights suddenly lit up in the clouds in front of the fleet of ships, shining them in their blood red gaze.

 _"I will see you in a bit, Skywalker"_ , said the voice, before the comms emitted a sound of static, then changed back to the normal frequencies.

 _"Anakin"_ , said Obi-Wan over the comms in a voice of confusion and distress, _"What was that?"_

"I don't know, master, but I think we're about to find out."

Suddenly, another mechanical roar could be heard, and a massive hole in the clouds formed above the fleet of Republic ships. Since the fleet was near the ground, flying above the still burning wreckage of the last battle, they had to look up through the burning red light coming through the thick black clouds to see what was in it. In the hole in the clouds, they could see over a hundred warships, greatly outnumbering the republic fleet.

Most of them looked like Separatist ships, but they were more streamlined, heavily armoured, and covered in black and red paint. There were several destroyers in the large fleet that resembled Providence-Class destroyers, but they were covered in black and red paint, their design was more smooth, their engines were smaller, and built in more into the back of the ships, and the towers on the top of the destroyers were smaller, while the towers at the bottom of the ships were gone. The multiple ships that resembled Recusant-class light destroyers were also covered in black and red paint, but their front sections were more smoother, and properly encompassed the front of the ship. Their bridges were gone, and their engines were now longer, and properly built into the back of the ship, extending all the way across the back frame of the ship. Most of the other ships in the large fleet appeared to resemble Umbaran support ships, but, like all the other ships, they was covered in black and red paint, and heavily modified. They were much more smooth looking, and their top engines were now built into the ships themselves, instead of being attached to them by a metal frame, while their front was more rounded, instead of a straight cut. The rest of the ships in the fleet were of designs that no one in the Republic fleet could recognise. Like the rest of the ships in the possible hostile force, they were covered in black and red paint, but they were of no design linked to the Separatists. Their main bodies were jagged and worn, and brimming with gun emplacements. The front of the main bodies of the ships was jagged, and the bridge was directly build in the front of the ships. The back of the ships ended at a sharp tip, and the bottom of the ships was jagged yet rounded, with what looked like missile and gun emplacements in them. On the left and right sides of the ships, there was a bulbous engine that was attached to the main bodies of the ships by multiple joints. The engines glowed red with energy, and on the front of the engines, there were two large yellow search lights, that lit up the clouds in front of the fleet.

But, what caught all of the Republic personnel off guard, was not the hostile fleet above them as a whole, but rather, what was blocking out the light from the dying sun; a massive warship, that glowed an ominous red.

The massive ship could be considered a space station, as it was about as long and as wide as 3 quarters of a moon. It was a square shape, and had what looked like massive railguns on each tip of the square behemoth. On the bottom of the ship, there was a massive circle of blood red light, and there were smaller glowing red circles surrounding it, indicating that it was it's engine, while on the back of the behemoth, there were multiple engines, which glowed red with power. On various parts of the bottom of the ship, there were what looked like mass driver cannons, missile pods, and point defence laser cannons scattered around it, all pointed downward to the Republic forces below. In the mid part of the ship, there were multiple hanger bays, with fighters pouring out of them, and mass driver cannon emplacements scattered around the massive walls, which was as tall as the highest skyscrapers back on Coruscant. On top of the ship, there was a main viewpoint, which oversaw the entirety of the top of the ship, with the main bridge being under the main viewpoint. Across the top of the ship, there were multiple runways, which lead into a hanger bay, that was guarded by a red force field, and across the top of the ship, were multiple mass driver cannons, missile pods, sensor nodes, point defence laser cannons, airlocks, and search lights. The entirety of the massive destroyer was covered in black paint, with red markings coating it as well, and red lights making it glow with ominousness.

Anakin was in distress. If that thing turned it's weapons on the Republic fleet, who knows what would happen. Across the multiple communication frequencies, he could hear multiple calls of fear, shock, and confusion, as everyone scrambled to get a bead on what was happening.

 _"What the hell is that thing?!"_

 _"Are those Separatists? What is happening?"_

 _"-Reading 100, no, 112 ships there, plus the big one-"_

 _"Does anyone have any idea of what's going on?"_

 _"We're outnumbered, here!"_

 _"We need to fall back!"_

 _"Where too? Where even are we?!"_

 _"Are they gonna kill us? I'm too young to die! This is my first kriffing mission, for Gods sake!"_

 _"Oh Gods, I don't wanna die like this!"_

 _"Wait a minute, what are they doing?"_

 _"They're... they're coming towards us!"_

Anakin looked up, and saw that the ships were diving, and indeed coming towards them, with a massive black swarm of what looked like fighters creeping closer and closer with each passing moment.

 _"Attention, soldiers of the Jedi"_ , once again boomed the mechanical voice over the comms, _"This is Shockwave, Chieftain of the Crymeia, and right now, aboard the Bright Long Time. To all those wondering of what is to happen now, all that I have to say is, I gave your Jedi leader, Anakin Skywalker, a chance. I told him to leave or face my will of force, but in his pride and selfishness, he refused. For what is about to happen, you have no one to blame but the one of the descendants of the ancient Je'daii order, the Jedi Skywalker himself. To those of you who may surrender, for you, I give no quarter. Dismissed."_

'Pride and selfishness?', thought Anakin to himself, 'Of all the-'

Then, above him, Anakin saw several blood red lights flicker on, in the hundred ship strong fleet, and then stay on. Then, the lights got closer, and closer, and closer...

It took Anakin a moment to realise that they were missiles.

 _"Missiles incoming!"_ yelled a clone pilot over the comms, _"Everyone take_ evasive-" _BTTTZZZZZZ._

The comms turned to static, as Anakin saw what looked like a flying ball of red energy slam into an Arc-170 flying next to Anakin, erupting into a ball of flames, and crashing into a downed Separatist Gozanti cruiser on the barren planet below. Several other energy missiles impacted with multiple other fighters, causing them to erupt into balls of flames, and on some occasions, impact with other fighters, resulting in a firestorm of debris falling to the ground. One energy missile impacted with the bridge of an Arquitens cruiser- the _Tumnor_ \- and caused it to drop like a fly, and detonating into a fireball once it collided into the flaming wreckage on the ground, evaporating all of it's crew inside.

Then, a red beam of energy impacted with the back engines of a GR-75, causing it to spin out of Control, and slam into the back engines of an Acclamator-class assault ship- the _Triumph_ \- resulting in the transport slowly dropping to the ground, and slamming front first into the wreckage of the _Vanguard_. Another red laser pierced through a V-Wing, erupting into a fireball, while another laser detonated on the wing of a Z-95, taking the fighter on a trip as it span out of control and crashed into the hanger bay of a Venator.

Anakin and the fighters scattered, attempting to dodge the lasers and energy missiles, to a vague success, but for a few, that was a futile effort, as explosions began to fill the airspace, taking out one fighter after another. Anakin then noticed a massive swarm of black and red Starfighters heading towards them, like a horde of flies to roadkill. The fighters began to fire upon the outnumbered Republic pilots, detonating multiple fighters before they even knew what was happening.

Before long, it was chaos all over again. Whoever this enemy was, they were well coordinated, and had a lot of time and experience to prepare and upgrade themselves against a Jedi attack. Whatever tactic or strategy the Republic forces could have employed to battle this new foe, it was all irrelevant. It was every man for himself. Anakin could barely fly through the horde of fighters without getting shot at. Whoever these guys were, they meant business, and they definitely knew how to wage war, and how to fight a Jedi.

 _"Anakin!"_ said Obi-Wan in distress, _"The Tellstar's under attack! I need your help!"_

"I'm on my way, Obi-Wan! Hang tight!" replied Anakin, as he flew toward the main centre of the fleet.

A few moments later, through the swarm of fighters, and red and blue laser fire, Anakin could see the _Tellstar_. On closer look, he could see what was the problem: the cruiser was swarming with hostiles. A gunship like ship (It had 2 large engines attached to the main body of the gunship, a single cockpit, and two sliding doors on each side of it, as well as two gun emplacements on the front, a missile pod on the bottom, and a 4 barrel turret on the top) was dropping off droids and strange soldiers in black and red armour, and they were both trying to break through the windows of the main bridge, and tearing apart the engines.

Anakin responded to this by letting off a burst of blue laser fire at the gunship, impacting with one of it's engines, resulting in the ship exploding on the cruiser, and sending several of the hostile figures on the hull of the ship flying. A few of the hostiles on the ship responded to this by firing at Anakin's Interceptor, with red blaster fire flying past the fighter. One individual, however, responded by taking their rocket launcher, locking on to Anakin's fighter, and firing. Anakin tried to dodge it, but the rocket ended up hitting the right side of his fighter, causing it to go up into flames.

Seeing the _Integrity_ close to the _Tellstar_ , Anakin steered his fighter closer to the Venator, and attempted to land in it's hanger bay, but Anakin ended up slamming into the landing strip of the ship, outside of the hanger bays, and had to force his way out. He and Artoo were only a few feet away before the Interceptor violently exploded, sending Anakin flying, and slamming him against the metal floor.

The last thing Anakin saw before he was knocked out, was several 501st clones panicking on what to do, and what looked like a ship in flames, about to collide with the _Integrity_...

* * *

 _ **Tellstar**_

 _A few moments earlier..._

Obi-Wan was becoming desperate. Whoever these, 'Crie-Mea' people where, they had a lot of experience in a fight. Their forces were overrunning the Republic fleet, and right now, they were landing soldiers on the hull of his own ship. Bold and risky, as they were in the middle of a battle, and anyone could just shoot them off the hull of the ship anytime they wanted, so whoever these droids were, they were either brave or stupid. Or both.

Suddenly, what looked like a B1 droid, with black paint, red marking, extensive armour plating, a jetpack, and cutting tool, flew onto the bridge window, and started banging against the glass with it's metal fists, slowly creating cracks in the windows. Then another droid joined him, and another, and another. Soon, each window had at least one droid banging on the glass, trying to get into the bridge. Oni-Wan tried to use the force to push them away from the window, but they just flew back to the window and continued to bang against it.

Then, Obi-Wan heard a bang, and looked between the droids to see that their gunship like craft had been destroyed, by Anakin himself. Obi-Wan sighed in relief, hoping that that was the end of that, but then he saw that a droid had fired a missile at Anakin's fighter, and successfully hitting it, causing it to crash into the hanger of the _Integrity_.

'Anakin's been through worse', thought Obi-Wan to himself, 'He'll be fine.'

Suddenly, the bridge of the ship violently shook, and all of the naval officers started to scramble around for safety.

"Sir!" yelled one of the officers in distress, "Our engines are gone! We're going down!"

Obi-Wan then saw that the droids were flying off, and that the ship was about to crash into the _Integrity_.

"Cody!" called out Obi-Wan to Cody in urgency, "Tell everyone on board to abandon-"

Too late.

The ship violently smashed side first into the hanger bay of the Venator, destroying the supports that held the hanger up, and ripping up the frame of the larger ship. One of the flaming engines fell off of the _Tellstar_ , and pierced through the metal walls that housed the reactor of the ship, smashing it, resulting in the reactor room being consumed in flames, and part of the bridge tower detonating into a ball of flames. The bridge of the _Tellstar_ proved unable to handle this, and snapped off of the main body of the ship, sending it sliding down the main hanger, and smashing into the wall of the hanger. This chain reaction proved to much for the Venator to take, and it slowly started to fall to the ground, erupting into flames in the process.

Obi-Wan was barely able to stay conscious throughout that minute of destruction, as he and Cody got up, seeing that they were the only clones on the bridge that were still alive, as the others had been killed. Obi-Wan then walked up to the front of the bridge, and jumped out of the now open window, force lifting Cody out too. The two then started running to the top of the hanger bay, as the ship tilted to the side, forcing all the debris to fall to one wall, forcing the ship down even faster. Clone troopers, boxes, disused gunships, and stray walkers began to tumble to the side, with some of the munitions in the boxes and vehicles detonating on impact, further adding to the destruction. Obi-Wan saw several 501st troopers helping Boil, Crys, Wooley, and several other 212th troopers out of the flaming wreckage, and then he saw troopers Jesse and Kix helping up a wounded Anakin. Obi-Wan ran to help Anakin, while Cody ran to the still flaming wreckage to help pull his brothers to safety.

"Anakin!" yelled Obi-Wan as he approached his former student.

"'m fine, Obi-Wan", said Anakin, as he was now sporting a black eye, and another bruise to his forehead, "Just a little banged up."

"You need serious medical attention, general", said Kix, "We need to check for internal bleeding and-"

"Kix, could you take it down a notch?" asked Jesse, "If the general says he's fine, he's fine."

"In my line of work, when people say they're fine, they're really not."

"Kix, please", said Anakin, "I'm fine for now. Once we've figured out what's going on, you can patch me up later."

"Generals!" yelled Captain Rex, as he ran from the lift to the bridge, as towards the small group, "The ship's going down. We need to evacuate, now!"

"Alright Rex. Contact Admiral Yularen, and have him direct everyone to escape pods. We need to retreat, regroup, and-"

Anakin hadn't even finished his sentence when the _Integrity_ finally hit the ground, colliding with the remains of the _Vanguard_ and the _Triumph_. Shrapnel and debris began to squash the clone troopers in the hanger, while the force of the impact flung others around like dolls that a child no longer wanted. Elsewhere, the corridors of the Venator began to fill with fire and lose metal, engulfing clone troopers and maintenance clones alike, and sending them to an unwanted demise. The force from the impact also caused one of the bridges on the star destroyer to snap off from it's tower support, and tumble down to the ground, killing all on board. The impact also caused all of the untouched munitions that was in both the wreckage and the star destroyer to detonate, killing even more troopers. This started a chain reaction, which caused the massive wreckage to start exploding, increasing more and more until it build up into a fireball.

"Everyone, get behind us!" called out Obi-Wan. Anakin immediately got the message, and when a large crowd of clones formed behind them, he moved to the other side of the fairly large crowd, and prepared to hold back the expanding fires. Soon, as the fires got closer, Anakin and Obi-Wan began to push back the fires using the force, creating a circle of flames around them. But the strain was becoming too much, and soon, the heat from the fire was beginning to burn both of the Jedi, peeling the skin on their hands, and burning their clothes. The fire began to creep closer and closer, but the 2 Jedi continued to push it back. Soon, the fire had gotten to close, to the point where the Jedi had to create a force dome around the large group, allowing the fire to swallow them whole, creating a dome of fire around them, and casting them in a searing orange light. Soon, even the 2 Jedi could handle the intense heat no longer, and with all their strength, they used the force to push the fire away. The blazing dome expanded, encompassing about a quarter of the hanger bay, before it evaporated, leaving a fourth of the hanger bay burnt, wrecked, and smouldered, but still safe to pass through.

Anakin took a deep breath, and looked at himself. His robes were burnt, and his gloves had burnt right off, revealing his robotic hand. His robes were worn to the point where his top robes had completely burnt off, showing his undershirt, and his bottoms had holes in them, and his boots were still smouldering, but intact. His left hand- his organic hand- had received 2nd degree burns, and his face was also burnt and bleeding, but he was still able to move. He then asked, "Is everyone okay?"

"Well, aside from some burns", said Obi-Wan, who robes were also burnt, and had 1st degree burn marks on his face, "I'm fine. What about everyone else?"

"We've got about 30 of us here, sirs", said Rex, his armour slightly scorched, but intact, "Me, Cody and others. Everyone else is either dead or unaccounted for. Our armour's burnt but we're fine."

"Yeah, speak for yourself", said Jesse, "We're 32 where there was once a hell of a lot more. It's Umbara all over again."

"True that", said one 212th trooper, "Hell, even the sky is in darkness."

"And, we're fighting an enemy that we've never seen before", said Crys.

"You kidding me, trooper? They're clankers. They'll go down just the same", said one 501st trooper.

"Keep telling yourself that, shiny."

"No one's a shiny today, boys", said Cody.

"Alright, enough of that, troopers", firmly said Obi-Wan, "Let's find a way out of here first, then we look for survivors."

The group then saw through the remains of the hanger bay more hostile gunships flying across the wreckage, training their spotlights on the ground. Beyond that, they could see that the battle in the air was not going in their favour.

 _"Alright everybody, listen up"_ , called out a robotic voice from one of the gunships, _"I want the following squads to scour the wreckage, and terminate any survivors. Sigma, Taylor, Omega, Foxtrot, and Crow. We can't allow the MFA to recover any survivors, so kill anyone you see, regardless of if they're Jedi or Sith aligned. Let's go, people, we've got a job to do!"_

"Looks like we won't be the only ones", solemnly stated Anakin.

"Generals, it looks like the roof of the hanger bay doors collapsed when the _Tellstar_ hit the ship", pointed out Rex, "We could probably climb it safely, and get a good view of what's going on from there."

"Sorry to say this captain, but that is a bad idea", said Obi-Wan sternly, "If our foes are sending death squads after any survivors, then we'll just be very visible targets if we go out into the open. I suggest we go up to the bridge, and scope out our surroundings from-"

Obi-Wan didn't even finish his sentence before a section of the bridge of the Venator snapped off, and fell on the hull of the ship, tumbling to the side as it laid to rest on the barren floor.

"...Visible targets out in the open it is, then."

The 32 person strong group then walked over to the collapsed hull, and began to climb their way out of the remains of the ship. As they climbed out, they were able to get a better view of the grim battle: another Venator had fallen to the barren floor, as well as a Victory-class star destroyer. Both ships were flaming wrecks, and any survivors from there were being hunted down like animals by hostile death squads. The dark world was lit up orange in the flaming wrecks, and a blood red from the gigantic dreadnaught above them, acting as a sort of secondary sun for the dark planet. Although it was mostly Republic ships that were falling to the ground, the mass amounts of wreckage on the ground was actually mostly Separatist crafts, which apparently must've collided together when they were all sucked into the black hole that was the monolith. The group could occasionally see a damaged Vulture Droid, or a stray B1, but they were quickly cut down by the death squads. It seemed that this foe didn't consider the Republic forces to be an actual threat; rather, they were an annoying gnat that needed to be swatted. And to be honest, they were probably right in thinking so. That's when the realisation dawned on the Republic soldiers:

This wasn't a battle. This was a sterilisation.

"I take it back", said Jesse, "This is way worse."

"What do we do now?" asked one of the clone troopers.

"We need to fall back", said Obi-Wan, "Regroup somewhere safe. Then we figure out a way of this planet."

"Not before we get Ahsoka back", replied Anakin.

"Anakin, with all due respect, we need to worry about ourselves right now. Besides, Ahsoka's fully capable of taking care of herself. You know that yourself."

"Not against these guys, master. Whoever they are."

Then, Anakin heard a whistling sound, and looked behind him to the sky, to see an enemy fighter soaring towards the group. It was a robust Starfighter, with thick wings with a tip on each end, and two engines that trailed red light after them. It's cockpit was visible, and glowed red, while a missile port and two laser cannons sat on the bottom. The front of the ship was a tip, that was crowned with a crest that held a strange symbol, and it had a short fin near the end of it, and a long blade like fin at the bottom of it. It then began to increase it's speed, charging at them.

"EVERYONE, DOWN!" cried out Anakin, as the fighter fired an energy missile at them. As the group began to scatter, the missile impacted with the hull of the ship, it's force and ferocity killing several clones. The ship then began to spray laser fire at them, killing 3 more clones. Anakin and Obi-Wan ignited their sabres, and tried their best to hold off the intensifying laser fire, but found that they too were being forced back by whoever was in that ship. The fighter then soared right passed the group, it's bottom blade like fin slicing open the hull of the grounded Venator, cutting a 501st trooper in half, and slicing trooper Wooley's legs clean off, like a knife to warm butter.

The cockpit of the Starfighter then opened mid-flight, and a figure jumped out, landing on the hull of the ship with a loud crash of metal on metal, right in front of the legless Wooley. The figure looked a Wooley, stomped over to him, and aimed what looked like an arm cannon at his head. A loud burst of red energy then erupted from the barrel of the cannon, coming into contact with Wooley's head, and erupting it into a ball of guts, blood, bone, helmet fragments, and smoke. After a moment, all that was left of Wooley's head was a piece of spinal cord, a neck stump, a lot of blood, and smoke.

Anakin looked at the figure, and in a shock, saw that it was the same figure from the visions that he had from the ship crash back on Coruscant, albeit more clearly visible.

Like the droid from the crashed ship, it was a Magnaguard, but was heavily modified. It's chest looked more akin to a metal ribcage, shielding another sheet of armour underneath. It's whole body was painted black, with red markings, and it wore a hooded cape, which was completely black, with a red symbol on it painted on. It's legs were bulky, let little thrusters could be seen across it's body, indicating that it was speedier than it looked. A massive arm cannon adorned it's right arm, with a tube on it that connected to it's back, which also had 3 power pack like vents attached to it. On it's left arm, it holstered what looked like a unignited energy sword, and it's chest adorned a glowing circle of light, and on it's head sat a pair of blood red glowing optics, and held the mind of a vey powerful individual. Across it's body, it features scars and dents,which it seemed to wear as a badge of honour, rather than wounds that needed to be patched. Everything about the droid exuberated power, and control, leaving those who fought it cowering in fear.

The Magnaguard looked at Anakin, and said in a deep, metallic voice, "I did say I'd see you in a bit, Skywalker, though I must say, I do wish it was under more pleasant circumstances."

"What are you?" asked Obi-Wan, with a hint of fear in his voice.

"I am Shockwave, leader of the Crymeia. Welcome to Mortis, Jedi."

Anakin charged at Shockwave, aiming to slash his chest open, but the droid merely stepped to the side, and aimed his left fist at Anakin, and thrust it into his abdomen. Anakin couldn't even yell in pain, as the breath had been forced out of his body. The droid then grabbed his head in a single hand, his claw like fingers digging into his already burnt and bruised scalp, drawing blood, and threw him into a slab of metal hull that had been ripped up, cutting the back of his head open, drawing even more blood. The clone troopers then aimed their weapons at Shockwave, and opened fire, spraying him with blue blaster bolts. But all Shockwave did was stand in the same position, not moving an inch, soaking up the blasts. When the clones ceased fire, they saw that the magnaguard had not been damaged in the slightest, just wearing scorch marks across his body, adding to the age old scars that he wore.

"Is that all?" Shockwave asked, daring them to make another move.

Obi-Wan stood still for a moment, unable to think of what to do next, before focusing himself, and throwing his lightsaber at Shockwave, who caught it with his left hand, and studied the blue blade in curiosity. Obi-Wan then summoned a wave of force energy, and threw it at the droid, hoping to force him away long enough for everyone to make a break for it. But the droid quickly looked back at Obi-Wan, and in a blink of an eye, several laser sights shot out of his red eyes, and it quickly began to scan what looked like a see through wave coming towards him. Shockwave then ignited a pair of thrusters on his legs, and flew over the wave, which Obi-Wan realised was his force energy. How was a droid of all things able to identify a manipulation of mystical energy with ease? How would anyone be able to do it? Obi-Wan then started to rapid fire bursts of force energy at the droid, but he kept identifying them with ease, and dodging them in the air with his thrusters, creeping closer every time. Before Obi-Wan realised it, Shockwave landed in front of him, and backhanded the Jedi Master so hard, he went flying, landing a meter away against the cold metal hull.

"You Jedi think you're so powerful, don't you?" mockingly asked Shockwave, "You believe that just because you use the force to some degree, that you're all so higher than everyone else. Let me tell you something, Jedi, you're nothing. You use a false concept like 'dark' and 'light' as a means to control those who follow your draconian ways, and expect everyone to respect you. You take children away from mothers and fathers, and cut down the people you claim to protect so easily with your sabres. Same with the Sith, too. The Jedi and the Sith are just 2 hypocritical religions who seek power for themselves, by enforcing their flawed ways onto people, and expecting everyone to follow suit, and you tie yourselves down with these same flawed teachings and rules. The worse part is, that you never change. You never allow yourselves to evolve. To explore the force, to discover new ways to live, to actually help people. You never allow yourselves to evolve into something better. You just stick to the same old things, and expect it all to go your way."

Shockwave then walked over to Anakin, who was trying to get himself up, and leaned down, looking down on his face, and casting a dark shadow over him.

"That is why you will always lose, Skywalker. You, the Jedi, and the Sith. What you all shun away, I welcome with open arms. I allow my people to evolve, while you sit like delusional fools, and live in a fantasy world, shunning away reality like it's an annoyance. While you sit in seclusion, and destroy all that you touch, I have helped not only my people, but in the greatest of times, all Mortisians, against an evil you could not even possibly imagine. Long story short, you will never change, and never assist anyone, while I will always evolve. And in the end, you will be the reason for your own destruction."

"You talk too much", said Rex, as he got behind the droid, and shot a round from his pistol into his head, but this did nothing but leave a scorch mark on the back of his head.

"Want to say that to my face, soldier boy?" rasped Shockwave as he got up, spun around, and grabbed Rex by the neck, lifting him up as he began to choke the clone, forcing his helmet to fall off, why the other troopers merely watched in fear, unsure of what to do, and worried that if they'd shoot, they'd hit their captain by accident.

"Ah, the flesh around your neck feels young", said Shockwave as he looked Rex in the eye, "There is no marks of war as old as 3 years, and your bones are as old as 10. More so, it feels synthetic, unnatural... oh, you weren't born. You were created. Engineered as a weapon of war."

Shockwave chuckled, as he forced the clone close to his face, and looked him dead in the eye.

"You, me, the MFA, and my people. We are not so different, after all."

"And.. why... is that?" asked Rex stubbornly through his gasps for air.

"We were all born for someone else's war", said Shockwave with a modicum of respect, before throwing Rex to the ground, "But alas, this is where I kill you, so do feel free to put up a fight. It makes it much more fun."

Then, a shot of green light lit up the thick clouds in the sky above and beyond the crippled Republic fleet, shining it's light upon the battle, acting as a beacon against the red and black sky, but a beacon of what, it was not known. The attention of all present turned to the shining green light in the clouds, the Republic forces in confusion, while the Crymeia looked towards the green heavens in frustration, respect, and enjoyment of a coming challenge.

From the dark clouds, a single ship descended, hovering above the fading battle. It was about as long and wide as an light cruiser, but fatter, and rounder. It had a single white search light at the front of it, and a single glowing green engine on it's back. Several gun emplacements sat on it's sides, and a single turbolaser cannon sat on the top of it, while 2 single cannons sat on the bottom of it. Across it's belly, there were 2 rows of what looked like hatches, with at least 20 hatches in both rows. The ship was painted over in grey, with green marking painted all over it, and green lighting decorated the ship, making it glow against the darkness.

At least 2 dozen more ships joined the single ship, with most of them being the same as the others, but there were at least 3 other ships present of different make. They were about as long as a dreadnaught class heavy cruiser, and as wide. They were adorn with turbolasers and missile launchers, and looked heavily armoured, yet seemed fast and manuverable, though that didn't seem likely considering it's size.

Then, more ships began to descend from the clouds, most of them being the same make as the first two, but there were a few of different design. There was one make of ship that was the same make of the jagged looking ships that the Crymeia was using, but they were smoother looking, and their lights were replaced from red to green, and their paint was grey and green.

In the now large fleet, there were now several ships that were about twice the size of a Venator star destroyer, and much more refined looking than the other ships present. The middle of the cruisers were flat, with antennas sticking out, as well as laser cannons, and a hanger bay protected by a green shield. What looked like the bridge was built into the hull of the ships, and two turbolaser batteries protected it from attack. The sides of the ships were also flat, but they were on a slope, and had several laser batteries sticking out of them. The bottom of the ships had several glowing green panels on it, which upon closer inspection, were actually hanger bays. The front of the ships had the 3 sections of the top hull sloping down, and between the 2 sloped sides, where the top hull panel ended, there was a massive mass driver cannon, which glowed green with energy. On the backs of the ships, 4 engines sat in a square formation, brimming with green energy, and across the cruisers, green lights shone against it's hull, and onto the other ships.

In a single minute, what looked to be about a hundred grey and green ships had descended from the thick black clouds, and were now charging at the Crymeian fleet. This seemed to draw the attention of the Separatist lookalikes, as they turned their main cannons on the alien force, and began to fire slugs of lasers at them. Soon, both fleets were trading shots with each other, green and red lasers and missiles filling the sky, while the Republic fleet found itself unsure of what to do, and confused as to who to shoot at.

"You just couldn't leave well enough alone, Cylas, could you?" muttered Shockwave as he looked to the large battle, with his massive behemoth, the _Bright Long Time_ , trading shots with the large cruisers, while a swarm of alien fighters and small frigates began to charge onto his forces, "You just had to get involved in things which aren't your business."

Anakin noticed that the droid was distracted, and used the force to pull his lightsaber towards him, but before it could reach him, Shockwave lifted his left arm out and caught it in his hand, without even looking. He then looked at Anakin, his face unmoving, but it was clear from his body language that he was slightly amused by it.

"Na ah", mocked Shockwave, as he crushed Anakin's lightsaber in his hand, and let it fall to the ground in pieces. Shockwave then stood up and looked down on the Jedi, "No more distractions. I'll dump your carcass on Ragnarok and be done with-"

Then, a small missile soared from the sky, and hit Shockwave in his right side. He was sent flying from the impact, before landing back on the metal hull, as metal shrapnel and black blood began to seep from his body. Both Jedi, and the clones present, looked up to see a small pod like object flying towards them, trailing green energy behind it. Before it slammed against the ground, it dissolved into a cloud of metal, which started to mass shift into flesh, bone, and blue blood. When the cloud of flesh hit the metal hull, it began to mass shift into a humanoid form, sprouting a body, a head, limbs, hands, feet, fingers, toes, hair, and armour.

Soon, the cloud had completely taken form, and the Jedi and clones were all in shock as to how this was all possible. It was a human boy lookalike, about 16-17 years of age, and was covered in what looked like a tight fitting flexible metal, grey body wetsuit, and grey and green armour pieces that seemed like they were held together by some sort of gravitational field, as they were basically just a bunch of moving parts that hovered in crucial areas around the suit. The boy had glowing green eyes, short brown hair, and what looked like a scar in the form of an X across his left cheek. His hands were gloved, except for his fingers, and green lights shone across his armour pieces. In his right hand, he held what looked like the hilt of an energy sword, and in his left hand, he held a strange type of rifle. The boy looked at Shockwave, and growled, while Shockwave got up, still bleeding, and looked right into the boy's eyes.

"Cylas", said Shockwave.

"Shockwave", replied the boy, who the Jedi now knew as Cylas.

"I thought you were on Riker's leash."

"Hardly."

"Oh, so are you here to kill some Jedi with me?"

"I'm not here for them."

"Most likely."

Cylas then pressed a button on his hilt, and it began to mass shift. A longer handle, hand guard, and sword back began to form, before a green blade ignited from the hilt and sword back. The glowing blade was shaped like that of a darksaber, but it glowed green, like a lightsaber. It seemed to be made of plasma, held down by a magnetic field, but it also glowed like a hologram, shining against the broken hull of the Venator. Shockwave's left arm, meanwhile, was shifting itself, so that the hilt of his sword that was embedded into his arm would extend out. Shockwave's arm cannon on his right arm began to collapse in on itself, and a right hand formed in it's place. Shockwave reached over to his left arm, pulled the hilt out, and ignited it, revealing a glowing bright purple blade, shaped like one of the metal swords of old. Cylas saw the purple blade, and looked at Shockwave with what looked like respect on his face.

"You still have my father's blade", commented Cylas, with a voice that seemed mournful.

"Yes", said Shockwave respectfully, "The same one he gave to me before the Battle of the Lost Point, against the House of the Black Lagoon's Dark Splicers. Remember that?"

"Of course I do. The Ascension was only 10 years ago. How could I not?"

"Well then, chitchat out of the way, this is where you step aside."

"This is where you make me."

* * *

 **Z-95 Headhunter Starfighter**

Hawk was not having a good day.

One moment he was in some deserted system in Wild Space, fighting for his life against a bunch of clankers, the next he was sucked into some black hole thing, and dumped into the atmosphere of some strange world, fighting for his life again against a bunch of clankers.

Again.

'Cept they weren't clankers, were they? These guys were much more experienced than the average tinnie, they outnumbered the Republic fleet, had a big ass ship about the size of 3 quarters of a damn moon, and were shredding them until these new guys in green showed up ad started shooting. Now Hawk was simply leading Kickback and Swoop through the madness, doing their best to stay alive in this insanity. No word from the Generals, or Admiral Yularen had been heard, and most of the remaining command structure was in chaos, with only a few captains coordinating together to try and resist the enemy, so Blue Squadron was on their own.

At least these new guys diverted most of the attention of the bad guys from what was left of the Republic forces. From what Hawk could tell, ever since they left Coruscant, the fleet has gone from 44 ships to 30 in the space of 12 hours, losing 2 Venators, a Victory, an Acclamator, a Nebulon-B, 4 Arquitens, 5 GR-75s, and over 300 Starfighters, meaning lots of Vod were gone now.

Hawk was saddened by this, as he saw another Venator go down. He always hated it when he heard that another one of his brothers was gone. It just meant to him that one more life was gone, one more soul had departed, and one more face was lost. But what made it worse, was that every time he heard that another one of his brothers was gone, the pain grew less and less, and he hated the clankers for that most of all.

Hawk then saw 3 fighters catch up to him and the rest of his squad, and flew alongside them. The fighters were green and grey, and were of a design that Hawk didn't recognise (What a surprise...). 2 of the fighters had a small main body, with a cockpit, and a frame that ended on an upwards tip on the back of the ships, and 2 blaster cannons built into the front of the fighters. On each side of the ship, there was an engine that was attached to the main bodies by a stubby wing, and those same engines too ended on an upwards tip, but they also were followed by a small green trail of energy following each engine. The other ship, however, was much larger, and more compact. It had a single cockpit, and 4 large engines sat in a square formation underneath it. There was a wing on each side of the fighter that sat between 2 of the engines, and there was a larger wing on the bottom of the ship. On the front of the ship, there was a single laser cannon, but there were also at least 4 missile tubes protruding from the front of the engines, indicating that the fighter was a bomber.

Hawk then heard static over the radio, and realised that his comms were being hacked again.

 _"Hello?"_ said a young female voice over the radio, _"Is this thing on? Testing, testing, 1 2 3."_

"I-identify yourself", said Hawk, unsure of what to do.

 _"Oh, hey there. I see- or hear, or whatever- that you can hear me. That's good, 'cause I might need your help."_

"Who are you? Why should I listen to you?"

 _"I'm MFA, sweetheart. That's all you need to know. I'm the ship to your right. Look to your right and you'll see me."_

Hawk looked to his right, and saw that one of the fighters had gotten close to his. He could see the pilot through the green cockpit, and he could also see that they were waving at him.

 _"Hi."_

"Um, hi to you, or something..."

 _"Okay, introduction's aside, you see the Banished Centurion in front of us?"_

Hawk looked in front of him, and saw one of the red and black alien ships bearing down on the fleet, it's 2 bright lights shining onto them.

"Er, yeah, I see it."

 _"Well, it's kinda looks like it's gonna kill your guys, so we're not gonna let that happen. (Because I mean, if we did then this would've all been a waste of time. Or more importantly, my time)."_

"Hold on, 'we'?"

 _"Yes, 'we'. We, you, me and you. Teamwork make's the dream work Did I not make that clear?"_

"How do I know that I can trust you?"

 _"'Cause it's either us, or, well, all of that below us."_

Hawk looked below his fighter, and saw the graveyard of ships and bodies below him.

"...Right. What do you want us to do?"

 _"Wait, us?"_

"Um yeah. The 2 other guys I'm flying with."

 _"Ah, right. Well, plan's simple. We follow the Fire Dragon and charge in. The Fire Dragon makes a hole in the armour of the joint sections of the engines for us, and we blow up the supports that hold one of them to the cruiser, and give your guys an opening to get out of here. We take you guys back to Haven and the Altar, and we think on what to do next."_

"Right then. Quick question: What's a Fire Dragon?"

 _"You see the big overcompensating bomber right in front of us?"_

"Oh, right then", said Hawk, "Did the others here that?"

 _"Yep"_ , said Swoop.

 _"Ready when you are"_ , reported in Kickback.

"Alright then, let's-"

 _"Wait, were you just talking to yourself, mister sir?"_ said the female voice.

"What?"

 _"Were you just talking to yourself? Are you schizophrenic?"_

"What? No, we're clo-"

 _"Oh great, we got a schizophrenic with us"_ , rasped another female voice over the comms, sounding like a lizard.

 _"Oi, don't be so intolerant, Mazor"_ , said the female voice, _"Sorry 'bout that, mister schizophrenic person. She's part of the old guard. Anyways, shall we go?"_

"Er, yeah, sure."

The 6 fighters then soared ahead, charging at the Centurion-class heavy cruiser in front of them. The Fire Dragon bomber took the lead, while the 5 other fighters clumsly huddled together behind it. Sticking together as a group, the group of fighters were seen by a group of Crymeian fighters, and soon, 3 droid fighters charged at them. They looked like Tri-Fighters, but they had much longer and thicker side panels, a single engine on their backs, and 3 laser cannons slapped in the front middle of them, with a red optic attached to the end of them. The Tri-Fighters began to fire at the group, and they began to bob and weave around each other, avoiding the blasts.

 _"Right then, Rec'Tall"_ , said the female, _"Light 'em up."_

 _"Sure thing, Raze-An"_ , said a soft male voice.

The Fire Dragon then charge forward, flying towards the ship, with the 3 Crymeian Tri-Fighters following it, blasting away. One of the Tri-Fighters hit the Fire Dragon in one of it's back engines, leaving a black trail behind it, but whoever was piloting the ship shutdown it's engines, letting the fighters pass him, and then reactivating them, before shooting one of the Tri-Fighters with a missile, and destroying it. The Fire Dragon then caught up with other 2 fighters, and did a barrel roll, smashing one fighter with it's bottom wing, causing it to violently spin, and fall to the ground, while the other was able to dodge the spinning bomber, but it didn't look where it was going, and smashed into another Tri-Fighter, detonating into a fireball of black liquid, and shrapnel. The Fire Dragon realigned itself, and unleashed it's full payload onto multiple joint sections on the Centurion, creating a hole in their armour, before turing around, and flying off back to the main fight.

 _"Alright then, guys"_ , spoke the female, _"Rec'Tall just gave us an opening in the joints. Let's hit them with everything we got."_

"Copy that", said Hawk, as he and the rest of Blue Squadron followed the two alien fighters.

The 5 fighters then flew at full speed towards the Crymeian cruiser, dodging the incoming laser fire and missiles, and flying towards the supports of the ship. They then began to fly between the large engine and the main body of the ship, blasting support after support, and creating a chain reaction that began to engulf all of the other supports.

 _"Hells yeah!"_ called out the female, _"We's getting it done!"_

"I'll have to agree with you on that-"

 _"STRUCTURAL FALIURE CRITICAL"_ , boomed a robotic voice outside the ship, _"SHIFTING BALANCE TO ADDITIONAL SUPPORTS. DEPLOYING DEFENSES. ALL TRI-OCTUPTARRAS ELIMINATE ATTACKERS."_

 _"...Well then, that's a thing"_ , said the raspy female voice, as the 5 Starfighters continued to pound joint after joint, as sentry turrets began to pop up, and fire at the group, while what looked like Octuptarra tri-droids began to move out of hatches, and fire at the small group as they flew past. Some of the tri-droids were small, and battle droid sized, while a few of them were much larger, and began to transform. Their turrets moved to the top of their large bulbous heads, and their legs began to shift into the arms on a Tri-Fighter. Soon, their transformation into Crymeian Tri-Fighters was complete, and they soared off in pursuit of the 5 enemy fighters.

 _"What the hell?!"_ said Swoop as he continued to destroy the supports, starting a chain reaction as the rest of the supports started to strain under the weight, _"When could Octuptarras transform into flyers?"_

 _"Since, like, forever. Duh"_ , said the soft female voice over the comms.

 _"Well, I don't know about tha-AAAUGGHH-" BTTTZZZZZ_

Swoop's Z-95 was hit by a sentry turret's laser fire, and he crashed into one of the supports, vaporising him. Kickback, meanwhile, was being chased by a Tri-Octuptarra, and it fired a missile at him, catching his wing, and forcing him to slam into the side of the engine, crushing him to death instantly.

"Swoop! Kickback! NO!" called out Hawk, as he watched them die.

 _"Raze-An, I got 2 Revenants on-MEEUUGGHHAA-" BTTTZZZZZ_

 _"MAZOR!"_ screamed the soft sounding female as one of the alien fighters was hit with a stray laser shot, and exploded, with the wreckage hitting one of the joints, destroying it.

 _"Dammit, Mazor"_ , sadly muttered the female, _"Please, don't leave me..."_

Hawk felt sympathy for the girl, but then noticed that the remaining joints were starting to snap and break. The weight of the engine was too much for the few remaining supports, and now they were breaking under the weight. The cruiser began to tip to the side, seemingly about to smash into Hawk and the other fighter.

"Hey, lady, we did it! The ship's going down! We need to move!" yelled Hawk over the comms, as he saw various Crymeian ship personnel tumbling out of the hatches, and either falling to their deaths, or slamming against the other side of the two metal walls, killing them instantly.

 _"...Right. Yeah. Job first, mourning later. Follow me."_

The alien fighter then flew up, dodging the fighters, debris, and falling Crymeians. Hawk followed, bobbing and weaving between the snapping joints and falling debris. The two fighters then flew to the top of the engine, and away from the falling Centurion, which now was missing one of it's engines, and was tipping to the side.

"That thing should be hitting the ground, any time now", said Hawk.

 _"Yeah, sure"_ , solemnly said the female.

"Hey, um, kid, I think, what's your name?"

 _"Raze-An. You?"_

"Hawk. Look, if you-"

 _"Let's just focus on what's most important, first. We just made an opening for your guys, so we should be able to link you to our jump drives and get ya'll out of here fast."_

"Oh, well, right then", said Hawk in understanding, as the 2 Starfighters flew back towards the main fight, eager for it all to end, and to allow them a moment to mourn.

* * *

 ** _Integrity_ (Or what's left of it)**

Over the course of his life as a Jedi, Anakin had seen and done a lot of things that were both or either strange or challenging. From rescuing Obi-Wan from a pit of Gundarks, to the mission on Carnelion IV, to tying Master Windu's boots together as a joke, to being captured by a group of drunken pirates, as well as Count Dooku (Of all people), to Iego, to the brain worm incident, the Zillo Beast, the senate hostage crisis, the first trip to Mortis, to accidently walking in on Ahsoka during her... time of the month (It's apparently a hell of a lot less tolerable than when Padme's on her, and Ahsoka still doesn't know what the Togruta time of the month is, for force's sake), and a bunch more crazy, strange, and unusual events, places and people. But if someone told him that one day he would bear witness to a 16-17 year old boy fighting off a robot that was able to curb-stomp 2 of the most well known Jedi in the entire order, he'd probably be sceptical about it, but would take it into account.

Yet right in front of him, his scepticism faded away, as he watched an elegant ballet of green and purple light, dancing across the platform of the _Integrity_ , dodging, blocking, and swinging like partners in a dance of death.

The boy, now known as Cylas, swung his green blade at the droid, now known as Shockwave, but he blocked it with his own purple blade, and swung back, only for Cylas to dodge that, and jam his glowing blade into Shockwave's bloody side, causing him to cry out in pain, and stumble. Shockwave then pulled out the green blade, and twisted it out of Cylas's hand, now slashing and swinging at him with 2 blades. But Cylas elegantly dodged the swings, jumping and twisting around the swings, and began to lay punches on the droid.

Anakin began to sense something in the force, and saw that the boy's hand was crackling with electricity. Suddenly, Cylas started rapid firing force lightning at Shockwave, who either dodged them or simply took the hits, not backing down.

Anakin was amazed by this. Amazed and worried. Whoever this boy was, he was strong in the force, and could be a potentially powerful ally. But, he also used an ability affiliated with the dark side of the force, which could mean that he was affiliated with the Sith. He even showed a blatant disregard for the Jedi, stating that he wasn't here for them, so that could mean that he hated them. That said, the thing he was fighting didn't seem any better.

Cylas's hands and feet began to crackle with force lightning, and as soon as Shockwave was close, he began to lay super charged punches and kicks on the droid, with each hit electrifying the droid, causing him to release steam from between his armour plates. Shockwave wasn't out of the fight yet though, and as Cylas went in for another punch, Shockwave grabbed him by the arm, and stabbed him in the shoulder with his purple blade. Cylas screamed from the pain, as blue blood began to seep from the wound, but Shockwave then grabbed Cylas by the back, and kneed him in the stomach, causing the boy to caught up phlegm, spittle, and blood. Shockwave continued to knee him in the stomach, breaking Cylas's armour, and causing his flexible metal body suit to dent and break, but electricity began to form around his body, and then he did something Anakin had never seen before: the boy used a lightning powered force repulse to blow away Shockwave, and blow off part of his front armour. Shockwave ended up flying, and Cylas ended up falling to his knees for a second, before standing back up, wiping away the blood from his mouth, and force pulling his sword back to him. He then pulled his rifle from his back, and began to shoot Shockwave, throwing green blast after green blast at the droid, who was missing most of the armour from his chest, and only a thin piece of metal protecting his important components. Shockwave then put his hand to the side of his head, and pressed a button.

"Bring my ship back down here, and evacuate all of our people on the ground. Charge up the _Bright Long Time_ , and fire the Plasma Torcher at this entire graveyard. Leave nothing and no one."

 _"Yes sir_ _"_ , said a robotic voice over his comms.

Shockwave then tried to get up, but Cylas picked him up with the force, and pulled him towards him, preparing to slice him in half. But Shockwave went with the pull, and aimed his fist at his head. When he got close enough, Shockwave slammed his fist into Cylas's head, dislocating his jaw, and sending him flying across the hull of the wrecked ship.

"Well, this has been a nice reunion", said Shockwave, as he picked up Cylas's rifle and crushed it in his left hand, while his ship came flying down, "But I'm afraid this is where we must part ways for now. Until we see each other again, Cylas."

Shockwave then jumped up as his fighter came flying down, and grabbed hold of the main body of the flying vehicle. He then climbed into the cockpit, and soared off back to the _Bright Long Time_ , as several Crymeian gunships flew down to the ground, picked up the death squads and survivors of the just crashed Crymeian ship, and flew back up to the massive behemoth.

All the people on the ground then noticed that the central red light at the bottom of the behemoth was slowly growing in intensity, and beginning to flare with red energy. The red circles around the large circle also began to flare with red energy, and the energy began to combine together to form a massive ball of red unstable energy. All the Crymeian ships under the massive behemoth started to pull out, and the green alien ships also started to move away from the fight, as well as the Republic forces.

While the survivors of the fight began to gape in awe at the sight, Cylas picked himself up, relocated his jaw into it's proper position, and looked up at the massive dreadnaught, which was now starting to spit literal fire onto the ground.

"Well shit", muttered Cylas as he tapped a button on his wrist, and a little holographic screen appeared on his arm, showing the face of a 16 year old Togrutan girl, "Kyler, do you read me?"

 _"Loud and clear, lover boy"_ , chirped a girl over Cylas's comms.

"(Why does that have to be my code name?) I need a few gunships for exfil. I got survivors in the immediate area."

 _"We're already on the way. When we saw the Bright Long Time powering up, we figured it was time to skedaddle on out of here. We'll be down in a minute."_

"Make it less than a minute, please. I don't wanna be down here when that Plasma Torcher comes down on us."

Cylas then came off his comms, and looked around at the sorry state of the survivors around him. They were all either scared, confused, hurt, flabbergasted, or a combination of them all.

"Who's the highest rank here?" asked Cylas.

"Er, well, that would be us", replied Obi-Wan, as he knelt down besides Anakin, who was still attempting to process all that had recently occurred.

"...Who's the next highest rank here?" asked Cylas, in a tone that could only be considered as blatant disregard for the Jedi.

"Well, um, that would be me, then", replied Commander Cody, who had now picked himself up, and was brushing himself off. His armour was dented and scorched, but still relatively intact.

"Name?" asked Cylas in the form of a demand.

"Commander Cody."

"Right then. I got some gunships coming down to pick us up. When they do come down, get all of your men on there, post haste, because when that thing up in the sky goes off, we all die."

"Hold on a second, why should we listen to you?" asked one of the clone troopers, "You're only a kid, for gods sake."

"1: I'm hardly a kid. 2: I just saved your sorry asses, so feel free to show a little respect."

Suddenly, 3 green and grey gunships flew down, and landed on the broken hull. They were like the Crymeian gunships, but they had 4 engines instead of 2, and their top turrets were single barrelled instead of quadruple. The doors of the gunships then opened up, and Cylas quickly ran up and jumped in.

"Come on, people. You get in now, or you're left behind."

"How do we know we can trust you?" asked Rex, "We don't even know you."

"That's right, you don't know, on both accounts. But right now, I'm giving you a chance to live, so fucking take it!"

Rex and Cody looked at each other, and shrugged. They then climbed into Cylas's gunship, and the other clones followed suit. Jesse and Boil ended up running back, and grabbing Obi-Wan and Anakin, helping them to the Gunship.

"Wait, what are you doing?" asked Cylas in a frustrated tone, "Forget the Jedi, they're dead weight."

"What do you mean by that?" said Rex, and he and Cody helped up Anakin and Obi-Wan.

"They'll only slow us down. Just forget them and dump them out of the ship."

"We're not forgetting them", stubbornly said Rex, as he saw Artoo fly up from the wreckage, and into the gunship.

"They're our generals", continued on Cody, "You dump them, the entire Republic will turn on you."

"...Fine", Cylas said, using the force to lift the 2 Jedi properly onto the ship. He then faced towards the front of the gunship, and held down a holographic button on a radio, "Pilot, get us out of here."

 _"Sure thing, boss."_

The doors to the gunship closed, and as the ships took off, Artoo started to beep and whirl, and through the glowing green windows, Rex, Cody and Obi-Wan saw Admiral Yularen, and several other survivors running up the hull, and waving frantically at the gunships, as they flew closer and closer away.

"Hey, we still got some of our guys down there!" called out Rex, "We need to go back for them!"

"There's no point", solemnly stated Cylas.

"What do you mean, 'There's no point'?" frustratingly asked Obi-Wan.

"Ordinarily, no man left behind. But right now, we don't have a choice. We have to leave them behind."

"No. We don't do that. We don't leave our men behind!"

"They'll die. We can't just leave them to those animals!" angrily yelled Rex.

"If we go back down there, we all die!" retorted Cylas, "It's them or everyone!"

"No, kriff that. Someone turn this thing-"

Suddenly, a massive boom could be heard, and as they all looked out of the window, most of them were in shock, while Cylas just stared blankly at the origin point. The _Bright Long Time_ had fired it's massive Plasma Torcher, resulting in a massive streak of unstable red energy soaring towards the ground, and completely destroying all the wreckage on the ground. Any survivors still on the ground, either Republic or Separatist, were completely eviscerated, and all of the wreckage on the ground was turned into ash. After a minute, the Plasma Torcher on the massive dreadnaught ceased, and the entire ground zero of the battle had been glassed, leaving nothing but glass, ash, and a few remaining pieces of rubble.

"No...", almost whimpered Rex, as he, Cody, and Obi-Wan stared out at the destruction, while Anakin found himself still unable to fully process what had just transpired.

"Welcome to Mortis, soldier boy", coldly stated Cylas, "Welcome to hell."

* * *

 **Remember to leave a review and follow this story guys, and tell me what your thoughts on this chapter were. And please, for the love of all things holy, read my other stories. I put a lot of effort into them, and I feel depressed when you guys don't read them for whatever reason. So please, show an author some love, and check out my other stories. It'd make me feel a lot better if you did. :'(**


	6. Homecoming-part 5: Eden's Gate

**A long time ago (Or recently, depending on one's perspective)...**

* * *

 _"Sir! More Black Sun fighters inbound!"_

 _"Shoot them down, then! We have to finish this battle now, if we are to grab the-"_

 _"Incoming droid ships, starboard side!"_

 _"More Separatist craft are closing in!"_

 _"A cruiser's been hit!"_

 _"One of our Dreadnoughts is down!"_

 _"Our Mandator is taking hits!"_

 _"Scratch one less criminal cruiser!"_

 _"Don't lose focus, we have to get out of this nebula, and... what in force's name..."_

 _"What the hell is that thing!"_

 _"It looks like some kind of black hole!"_

 _"Tell the Pendarran Warriors to-"_

 _"Holy-"_

 _"It's sucking us in!"_

 _"It's sucking everything in, for Kriff sake!"_

 _"Get to the escape pods! MOVE!"_

 _"The bridge is being torn apart!"_

 _"Get a message back to Coruscant!"_

 _"We can't! The nebula's blocking ARGH!"_

 _"Communications officer's down!"_

 _"We need to get out of-"_

 _"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"_

 _"BRACE YOURSELVES!"_

* * *

 _"Okay, so we've got a bunch of aliens knocking on our door, a hospitalised prisoner, and we've suffered casualties going through the Rad Zone. This is all fine. This is still salvageable. At lest now we've got leverage over the Jedi."_  
 **Heavy-Metal- Crymeian Council/Havoc Squad member**

* * *

 **Across the Mortis Wastelands**

 _Now..._

Anakin was angry, among other things. He was angry, confused, and very much brimming with questions. As he sat in the cramped alien gunship, along with their new host, Cylas- A child, of all things- as well as Obi-Wan, Artoo, and the few clones who stood up, he gently caressed the smarting parts of his body, trying to ease off the pain that he felt. It was honestly going to take a bit more than a Bacta tank to heal these wounds. He looked to his right at Obi-Wan, who had sat down next to him. He was probably thinking the same thing. Their wounds would put them out of commission for about a month or 2, if they ever got off Mortis and back to Coruscant, that is.

Speaking of Mortis, the entire return trip to this crazy planet had been a complete mess. First, they were engaged by droids, then they were sucked into a giant monolith being held together by weird tendril things, then they were separated from Ahsoka, then they were engaged again by, um, droids, he guessed, and now they were being 'rescued', by some kid with a mood that could kill a bantha, and a force that could probably kill them all without even pulling a swea-

Ahsoka.

In the last few hours, since they were engaged by those 'Cry-me-a-river' guys, he had subconsciously pushed his worries for Ahsoka to the back of his mind. He tried to pull himself up, but found that he was still injured to move, as he grunted in pain. Artoo noticed this, as well as the clones, and they started telling him to stay down, worried as he might pull something and start bleeding out. He didn't care. He needed to find Ahsoka. This planet was becoming a hellhole, and he needed to know that she was safe. Obi-Wan sensed his frustrations, and tried to use the remnants of the bond that they had when Anakin was his Padawan before they had to break it, to try and sooth his worries, but found that the bond had been broken long enough for the foundations of it to be removed. His mental barriers were also too strong for Obi-Wan to try and access Anakin's mind, at least, in his weakened state. Cylas, meanwhile, just looked at him with a neutral expression, not bothering to move a muscle, as his hand held onto the handlebar on the roof of the gunship hold. He squinted his eyes, as he looked at Anakin. The Jedi figured that he was looking at him in disgust or something. Jerk.

Anakin tried to get up again, but stopped himself when he felt something in the back of his mind. A foreign pair of eyes looking at his thoughts, feeling his frustrations and anger. It felt cold from a distance, yet warm to the touch. It took a look at his emotions, as they irradiated off of him, and it just nodded in response, understanding what he was feeling. Before Anakin could mentally respond, a strange, cooling forced entered his mind, feeling his emotions, and soothing them. He didn't know what it was. The light side? The dark side? At the moment, he suddenly lost the will to care. It felt like a cooling river of water had entered his mind, putting out the fires that plagued his mind, and filling him with calmness and clarity. He felt all of the negativity inside him slither into dormancy, and he ended up becoming incredibly drowsy.

 _Feeling better, kid?_

He felt someone speaking in his mind, talking through the force. He felt some sort of bond in his mind, and found that it belonged to someone very close by. He looked up, to see that Cylas had crouched down in front of him, and was looking him right in the eye, his legs crossed, and his hands at his side. This kid had somehow created a force-bond with him, and was using the force to sooth his emotions. Anakin was confused, and Cylas felt this. Obi-Wan just looked at Cylas, and was the one to finally ask, "What are you doing, may I ask?"

"I've created a link with him", replied Cylas, "And I'm getting rid of all of that negativity in him. It was getting annoying to listen too. I say 'listen', I mean more along the lines of 'sense'."

"You created a link with him?"

"You Jedi would call it a bond. A force-bond."

"W... what?" drowsily said Anakin. Obi-Wan was about to say the same thing, "But a force-bond is an incredibly powerful thing. You can't just make one when you-"

"I've had over 40,000 years to acquaint myself with the force, Je- _sigh_ , Skywalker- and I've made bonds before. So yeah, I can just make one when I want too."

"W... Wait, 40... thousand..."

"Just sleep, Skywalker. Just sleep and let me think without having to hear your own damn frustrations", Cylas said that all with the bluntest face and tone, and just irradiated honesty as he said that.

Skywalker couldn't even give a response before his mind shut down, and his eyes began to clamp together.

The last thing he saw before he entered a dreamless sleep was Cylas getting up, and walking back to his original spot...

* * *

Okay, I'm starting to get frustrated with this lot. Originally, I had felt no hostile intent or deception through the force from the soldiers, which was why I had told the other Wreckers over our mental links that we'd be letting them near the city. Plus, they had passed all of the secret scans that we had in place, so that helped too. Well, except the Jedi, but they were an issue for another time. But now, they definitely had quite hostile intent in their minds. I could practically taste it. Also, their golem was acting a tad bit hostile, but it was kinda cute, I guess, so I'll just check it in a bit. Speaking of which, the blue and white golem pepper shaker moved itself in front of the Jedi with anger issues, and started talking in binary, though I wasn't really listening, until an attachment sprung out of it's domed head, being what looked like an Taser, or something. I couldn't help but smile at the little thing, as I said, "Whoa, easy there, little warrior. No need to go into a sulk just because I mentally tucked the guy into bed."

 _*Beow beow whopp wop wop qu qu_ , went the golem in response.

"Okay, yes, being a weird stranger is a pretty justifiable reason, but please could you refrain from pointing that at me? I don't want to do something that I wouldn't have to do."

That was true. At least, that's what I tell myself.

The golem seemed to back off, but I didn't want to take any chances. As soon as it looked like the robot had dropped its guard, I used the force to disconnect a lot of the inner workings of it, and turn it off. The lights of the golem shut down, as I opened up a compartment in the side of the gunship, pulling out a containment bolt, and walking up to the golem. The soldiers immediately got protective, and the other Jedi- the one with the beard- immediately asked, "What did you just do to our droid?"

Droid huh? That's a very technoist term to use, "I turned it off. With the force, before you ask."

"W-what are you doing- _cough cough cough_ \- what are you doing now?" his wounds seem to be catching up with him, like his Jedi friend.

"That's none of your concern for now", I'm surprised that I've got so much patience for these Jedi guys. I guess all that time around the MFA, Crymeia, neutrals, and so on has made me much more open to people. Like my father. Oh, bless his souls, for all the good he's done, minus all the bad as well. I remember all of the good times that we had with each other while the Mortisian force form takeover and the rise of the Ones was still a thing. I stopped in place for a few moments, spacing out from my current reality, the memories of hearing about my parents' honeymoon about 47,000 years ago. My memories then shifted to my own honeymoon with Kyler around 18,000 years ago, the seas of Meraylk before us as we sat on our sunbathing chairs, the golagen fruit trees decorating the beach, the taste of chilled golagen punch running down my throat, and the sensation of a kiss so magical it made time itself cease around us. I quickly shook my head, shooing away these thoughts. I looked at the soldiers and Jedi in the gunship, and said, "Sorry. Sorry. I spaced out a bit", before walking up to the golem, and placing the containment bolt on, the bolt shining a green light before turning to blue, and quickly shocking the golem with a blue electric shock, and locking it into stasis mode.

I decided to see if I could take off the top of the golem, but I felt the bearded Jedi grab my hand, telling me, "I- _groan_ \- think that you've gotten a bit too comfortable, don't you think?"

"My turf, my rules, Jedi", I said to him, "And refrain from touching me in future", I shook off his hand, "I'm starting to think that you not very appreciative of me saving your sorry asses."

"After you left others to die", muttered one of the soldiers. I heard this, unfortunately for him, and shot a glare at him. I looked at the soldier, and saw that he wore white and grey armour with blue markings, a grey metal and plastic shield over his chest and lower abdomen, a few ammo magazines attached to his chest, a pauldron, what looked like an antenna attachment on his helmet, and also a painting of some sort of predatory eel or something, and what looked like a skirt on his waist, that ran all the way down to his knees. A skirt, for a soldier? What was it, a combat skirt, or something? Seems impractical.

"Okay then soldier boy", I began, not bothering to hide the offence in my voice, "What would you have done, then?"

I seemed to have caught him off guard, as he stuttered, "Um, what-"

"Go on, tell me. You've got over 20 surviving army men in front of you, and over your heads, a giant death laser is powering up to try and kill you like an annoying gnat. You've got a minute to make a decision. You can either get out with the people that you have with you at the minute, forever burdening the guilt that you could've done something, or you could fly off and get yourself killed, dying with the idea that you were trying to do good? Live to fight another day, or die trying to do something stupid?"

While I was talking, I had stood up, and walked right up to the soldier, his brothers in arms placing their hands on their guns and their fingers on the triggers, concern irradiating off of them, as well as combat fatigue, weariness, shot nerves, and repressed PTSD and trauma. The soldier had definitely shut himself up now. Hopefully, he'd see my point. I then saw that there was a written language marking on his lower arm, but it was in a language that I didn't recognise. Seems logical. From the looks of it, they didn't come from Mortis, and all the other planets and stars in the universe were destroyed during the Ascension, plus they've got Jedi with them, so they're not refugees from another ruined house or forgotten colony world, so the only logical thing to say would be that they came from another universe, or even another plane of existence, so it would make sense that they'd have a different language that I wouldn't understand. To be honest, I'm surprised that we're even speaking the same language as well. Perhaps I had put on one of my intergalactic translators by accident, or something, and I forgot to take it off. Questions for later.

I looked to the rest of the soldiers, and I said to them, "Hands off the guns, idiots. I'm not gonna kill you", _If I wanted to, you'd all be dead_ , I finished off in my head. They didn't need to know that bit. Not yet at least.

"How do we know that?" said one of the soldiers, who had white and blue armour, what looked like a custom helmet, compared to the other soldiers, a pauldron and skirt, and duel wielding pistols. His hands were on his pistols, which themselves sat in their holsters. He seemed to be the ballsiest of the soldiers. I could feel his protectiveness of his fellow men, his eagerness to ascertain a full understanding of the situation, and to be done with said situation. I could sense a growing fear in his mind. Some recent event had changed his perspective on, well, something, and it was beginning to be shown in his head.

Ah, screw it, "Because if I wanted to kill you all, you'd be dead already", better now than never. As expected, this only steeled the soldiers' nerves. I mentally sighed to myself. This was going to be a long trip, unless I used mental suggestion on them like I did the Jedi.

Mental suggestion. It's basically a subtler, and much more diluted form of physiological force hypnosis. It's used by MFA therapists and physicians to calm down their patients, and lower their stress levels. It's not technically mind control, but it does help to shift someone's mental state towards making more healthy decisions if their minds are extremely damaged. Kyler used to work as a psychiatrist before she quit the job to work full time as a Wrecker and a doctor, and since we're _particeps amoris_ , I've picked up on how to use it.

I mentally turned on the mental suggestion, and laced my voice with its hypnotic scent as I spoke, not just to the lead soldier, but to all of the soldiers present, "Look, you don't trust me, and that's fine. But guess what: I don't trust you. You pop up on a dead world, suddenly, right near my guys' age old enemy, right after a bunch of rogues launch an age old ship off on a mercy mission and get themselves killed. The only reason my guys saved your asses was because of good will and curiosity, and now, when we land, my goal will be to get you off of this dead planet, back to wherever you came from, so that you can leave this world forever, but in order to do that, unfortunately, I need you to work with me, and to prove to not only me, but the rest of the MFA, that we can trust you to do what we say, when we say it."

I felt my voice's hypnotic sense enter their minds, calming their nerves, yet it wasn't really enough. I wasn't the most charismatic person ever, and I had a bad habit of saying what I wanted, when I wanted, and sometimes, it didn't really help.

I continued speaking, trying to rose tint my speech, "Listen, I know you're all scared- And nothing you say in defence of yourselves will change that- And you have a right to be. You're in a place you probably don't know, in a cramped metal shell, being talked to by a stranger who looks like a 17 year old white kid but actually isn't, and can mass shift into a person sided flying cylinder. Hostility would be a pretty logical reaction, but please, understand this, I don't expect you to trust me, or anyone from the MFA, but what I do expect, is for you to cooperate with us, in finding out where you came from, and how to get you back to your home, provided you're not CIA spies and we don't find out and kill you all, because if you are, we will. Understand?" as those words left my mouth, I saw that my suggestion laced words had had their proper effect. The soldiers had either eased off their holstered guns, or lowered them to a more calm and chilled position, "Thank you", I finished off, mentally shutting down the mental suggestion. I probably should've told them that deactivating their golem was a security necessary as well, but it was done and done, and I was finished with my little display of grandiose as well.

Oh well.

As soon as I said that, my comm-link on my left wrist started beeping and flashing a green light. I raised my wrist, and pushed the blinking green button on it (Since I'd been stabbed in the shoulder not too long ago, my arm still hurt a bit, but my advanced healing was doing it's job, and numbing the pain, so that's good), showing a glowing blue holographic display, and the image and name of who was calling me. Riker. He must've seen the ships we were bringing along, which means we must be in range of _Eden's Gate_. Oh joy, in both the literal and sarcastic sense. Literal because we were near home, and sarcastic because I'd have to deal with Riker and the other bureaucrats. I said, "'Scuse me", to the soldiers, before moving to the underpopulated corner of the cramped gunship- my original spot- and pressing a green display meaning 'Answer', and seeing the face of the Ibie'sh Kig-Yar mutant (Because of most members of the mutant strain of the MFA bear incredible resemblance to members of other species across the Omniverse, many within our society have speculated that each member is the progenitor of the species they most resemble. Stands to reason, I guess) Envelop the screen.

I decided to start off, but Riker cut me off before I could, _"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"_ he yelled in his scaly and nasally voice.

"Hey Riker", I replied with a straight face and tone. I'm probably getting court martialed, I think.

 _"Why the hell are you bringing aliens to our city?!"_ okay, that definitely means we're close to the city.

I retorted, "I'm not letting them into the city. Not the soldiers, or the Jedi. I'm gonna have Silensor and Sabre set them down outside of-"

 _"YOU HAVE JEDI WITH YOU!?"_

Ugh. He's gonna have a field day with this one. I quickly looked to the 2 Jedi, to see them both passed out. The one with the beard must've finally succumbed to his injuries, and fell into slumber. I noted the soldiers and golem had moved around the 2 Jedi, and were doing their best to move them into a more stable condition. I looked back at the projection of Riker's head, and said, "Yes, I do, but it was more or less by necessity rather than willingness", I said as I looked back at the soldiers accusingly. They could probably tell of my inherited disdain of the Jedi, and that was good. It'd show how much I disliked them.

 _"Oh, ho ho ho"_ , Riker's throat clicked along as he said that. I knew what he was about to say. He's had it out for me ever since the Rending, where the Wreckers and I humiliated him at the twilight's Gap by saving the House of the Lion's Teeth's sorry asses while he played internal politics. Riker continued by saying, _"You are done. You have lost your sanity, boy! I have looked away for too long, but now, this is- is- is fucking inexcusable!"_

I rolled my eyes as I said, "Yeah yeah, sure, meet you in the council chamber in a bit. Have to say hello to an old friend first", I said, before hanging up on Riker, and just sighing. I'm pretty sure that he tried to call me later, but I didn't answer. I had more important things to worry about..

I felt the gunship then rock, and it's systems began to power down. We must've landed. I saw the black panels across the view ports (I had ordered them up, so that if our guests were hostile, they wouldn't find their way back to the city if we ejected them from the area, provided they don't memorise the path back) lower, showing the snowy land just outside of _Eden's Gate_ , where all of these alien ships were being parked, and unloaded by the hundreds of soldiers present. The door then opened, and I saw MFA personnel helping out the soldiers, and interacting with them, trying not to cough through the dust, snow and smoke. I looked to the other end of the gunship, and saw the soldiers and golem trying to pick up the Jedi and move them. I decided to save them the time, and, without lifting a finger, used the force to lift the 2 Jedi from the gunship, and onto the ground, kicking up dust and snow particles. A few of the MFA members around the gunship saw the 2 Jedi, and began to back away, doing their duties from a distance. I then saw a 8 wheeled vehicle rolling towards my position, leaving tire trails in the icy ground behind it, that the MFA had designated as a IAV Stryker vehicle, since it was the only one of it's kind. Also it sounded cool. It was in grey and blue, covered in dirt and snow, streamlined, and had a large railgun attached to the top of it. I knew who it was. The vehicle was actually a Tyran Cybertronian mutant and Wrecker called Razor-Runner, but his humanoid form was too energy consuming to handle, so he was locked into his vehicle form (There was once another Cybertronian mutant once, who looked more like a primax Cybertronian rather than a Tyran Cybertronian, but I'd be damned to remember his name).

The backdoor to Razor-Runner opened up before he parked as I walked off of the gunship, and a Togruta mutant with red skin, white markings, white and blue montrals, and a form fitting suit of flexible APEX armour quickly jumped out, while a Battle Dragon fighter landed right next to the mode locked Transformer, creating a cloud of dust, that only thickened the smog and falling snow. I knew who the Togruta was when I saw her walking towards me. Kyler. My _particeps amoris_ , or wife, on other worlds. Before I said anything, she walked up to me, wrapped her arms around me, and pressed her lips against mine. I also felt her healing aura begin to aid my own natural healing in fixing my shoulder, and my other wounds, and let me tell you, it was euphoric.

I didn't deserve this.

I pulled away from her, and she looked at me with a sad, yet gentle smile. I just said to her, "Can't keep your hands off me, huh?"

"We've known each other all our lives, Cy", chirped Kyler in a plesant, yet sad tone, the blue stripes on her head-tails and montrals becoming a bright blue, "You should know that by now", she punctuated the second half of her sentence by gently pressing her finger against my nose, tilting my head back. I just gave a tiny giggle in response, and we pressed our foreheads together as we sadly smiled, sharing a brief moment of contentment through our bond in the force. Feeling eyes watching us, I looked to my side, and saw a few of the soldiers who was on the gunship with me looking at the 2 of us as we embraced. I quickly shot them a glare, and they went off with the rest of their group, who had gotten help from another soldier with white and blue armour, and a red symbol on his left shoulder, who had also conveniently been carrying around stretchers at the same time, as they lifted the two Jedi onto said stretchers. Kyler saw whom I was looking too, and asked, "Do we know who these guys are yet, anyway?"

"Nope", I said, popping the P, as we unwrapped our arms off each other, and took a single step back from the other, not taking our eyes off of the group of alien soldiers, "But they said something about a 'Republic', or whatever, and they also got Jedi with them, so that's a-"

"Jedi?" Kyler swung her head around to face me as she said this, her markings for eyebrows arched as she said that word. Long before the Shattering, 35,000 years ago, those on Mortis, who then spread across the universe, developed a strong disdain for the Jedi and Sith, though the reasons as to why laid within the scriptures of old,,that had been debunked time and time again, and also the scant few transmissions and signals that we have somehow picked up over the last year which took a liking to damning the Jedi. A lot of people nowadays on Mortis don't believe that the Jedi and Sith even existed, thinking that they were just an old bedtime story used to scare the young ones and keep them in line. But the higher ups- the Wreckers and I, Riker, and the new High Council, the old House of Parliament, my mother and father, and the Elite Five- knew they were real, though that bit was the only truly real thing that we knew about them. Kyler added on to her question, saying, "If there are Jedi here, then-"

"It's a possibility, Kyler", I knew what she was going to say, before she said it. I could feel it through our bond. She looked at me, with a worried expression on her face. Before she could say anything else, I felt a finger tap on my left shoulder. I turned around, to see a tall Xenomorph mutant standing next to me, making sign language with his hands. This was Silensor, a fellow Wrecker. He was with us when we banded together during the Great Mutation, but had his vocal cords shredded during the Siege of _The Infinite_ , and hasn't gotten around to fixing them. I looked to his hands, and could tell what he was saying.

[Riker's pissed at you.] he said through sign language.

"What else is new?" I replied to him, "I had a chat with him earlier."

[He and the Council are gonna court martial you for this. You know that, right?]

"Let them do what they want. I don't care for them."

Kyler interjected with her own point, "Cylas, I know you know that's... Well, that's the truth, I suppose. I don't think anyone here really does care for Riker and his lot, but we can't just talk about them out in the open like that. People might think we were inspiring mutiny or something."

"Let them have leadership", I retorted, "Too much work, anyways. I'm good where I am."

Silensor started before I had finished my sentence, [Bullshit, boss. We've been carrying the High Council's asses ever since we arrived on Mortis. We- As in all of us- Are more capable leaders than them.]

"... I don't deserve leadership", I muttered, stating the obvious.

[You're already leader of the Wreckers.]

"Yeah, and I'm comfortable with it. I trust myself with that much, and people are already critical about me on that much. I don't need anymore distrust and doubt being aimed at me if I get put into a leadership position."

"No one distrust you, Cylas", said Kyler, "It's just that they're worried about you."

"Bullshit. No one believes in us anymore", it's true. The Wreckers' name has been dragged through the dirt, because of... Her. We've reacted and responded to situations that not even the Elite Five or MFAJD could handle for the last 15,000 years, wading and trudging through the meat grinder, bringing down entire worlds and battlefields single handed, and for what? To be treated as less than dirt? To be distrusted, and hated? No. I'm not having that. You can insult me all you want, but you don't bring my teammates down with me.

"Who are you trying to convince?"

I didn't say anything. I just grunted in response, and wordlessly left them, as I walked through the snow towards the entrance to _Eden's Gate_. They knew where I was going. Of course they'd know. I waved my hand at them, and they knew what to do. I don't know which direction they walked in, as I was facing the other way, but I figured that they'd go to where they thought they were needed. I should probably call Sabre, to know what he was doing. I activated my wrist communicator, and searched my contacts, until I found Sabre's number. Pressing his number, it began to ring, until an image of a Crymeian grunt in green and grey, with glowing blue photo receptors popped up, and waved at me. That Crymeian grunt was Sabre, a former Crymeian now MFA turncoat. We found each other during the Great Mutation, before the Wreckers was formed back when he was still gunning for the other side, and we've good been friends ever since.

He spoke first, " _#Heyboss #What'sup?_ " yeah, he spoke in hashtags for some reason. Don't ask me why, I wouldn't be able to tell you.

"Hey, Sabre", I responded, with a gentle smile, "You alright?"

" _#Yeahboss! #Upinoneoftheships! #LIT!_ "

"Hm, well I'm sure it is. Unlike down here. Bloody freezing."

" _#JustgotwordfromRiker #Saysyou'renolongerfitforduty_ "

"Well, I'm sure he was nice about it."

" _#Tobefair #BringingunknownaliensnearEden'sgate #Dumbmove_ "

"Oh, sod off. There were-"

" _#Dyingsoldiers #Yeahx2 #Butstill #Intent #Wedon'tknowthem #Theydon'tknowus_ "

"Don't worry, I've got this."

" _#Doyou?_ "

"Uh, yeah. Obviously."

" _#Isthisaboutyourpride? #Oryourwanttoprovesomething? #Priorities_ "

I didn't give him an answer. I just waved bye, and hung up on him. I really didn't want to have that conversation.

 _He's right, you know. We all are._

I heard Kyler speaking to me through our bond. Looks like we are having this conversation. I replied with, _What is it that you want me to say?_

 _I want you to say that you're wrong. We have an armed alien force of about, I estimate, 20,000 armed soldiers, with fighters and tanks and weird legged vehicles and whatnot, and you just invite them onto our doorstep all willy-nilly._

 _They're right under our guns, Kyler, and we've got about 4 million or so soldiers, with 25,000 years of combat experience, that we can sick on their arses if they try anything funny. Trust me, if anyone should be worrying, it's the new guys._

 _Well, yeah, of course. I'm looking at their tech right now, and it's not exactly cutting edge (Not that ours is anything to look at). But still, if we fight them, a lot of us will die, as will the soldiers. Besides, this isn't about them. This is about you letting your self worth issues get the better of you. Or something along those lines._

 _I couldn't just leave them to be slaughtered by Shockwave and his forces._

 _He would've spared a good few of them. He wouldn't have killed them all. He would've just killed the Jedi, and be done with it. It's not in Shockwave's nature to be unnecessarily cruel._

 _You heard the communications that we intercepted. He wasn't gonna take prisoners. He was desperate._

 _Or, maybe he wasn't going to hurt them, and make them leave. He's smart. You know this more than anyone does._

 _Look, these guys are wounded, and from the looks of it, they've already lost a lot of their own today. They were almost about to be slaughtered by a very scared and frantic Crymeia, and they don't really seem like they've got the same level of experience as the rest of us. Plus, they came to Mortis somehow, most likely because of Pacem, though I've got no idea how. If we get them back through into their galaxy-_

 _You can make the rest of us follow, and we can made a new home for ourselves?_

 _Wha- No. No. You know what would happen if we went through. We would spread our war into another galaxy if we did that._

 _My love, I... I'm worried about you. The ascension changed all of us, I get that. But you're letting your emotions dictate your actions._

 _What does that mean?_

 _It means that you're driving yourself towards self destruction. i had seen the signs before, but for some stupid reason, I ignored them, hoping that they were just red herrings, but today they've become more clear._

 _I'm fine, Kyler._

 _No, you're not. Once I've overseen these guys for a bit, I'll come find you. You need someone to talk to, Cylas, and I'm... yeah._

 _... Alright then. But I don't have any problems, Kyler. I'm perfectly fine._

 _Cylas, please._

 _..._

 _... I love you._

 _... I love you too._

I felt her ease off our bond, and I mused to myself as I walked through the dirt and smoke. No, she was wrong. I'm fine. I don't have any problems... I don't have many problems. The only problem that I have is trying to show people that we are not like her. Why didn't they see that? Why don't they see that? Just because I'm related to... Her, that doesn't mean that we're going to be like her. Why can't people understand that? Because of her, my teammates are disgraced. Because of her, the people that I care about the most are hated and feared. Dammit, I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate-

I felt a tear roll down my cheek. I wiped it off, and looked at my smudged hand, and the air around me felt cleaner as I stood by an air purifier.

No. No, I didn't still love her. I didn't. I didn't. I...

I...

...

...Fuck.

* * *

 **On the other side of the planet**  
 **Remnant (Crymeian Capitol)**

Dooku marched along the long and large corridor, flanked by a few of his remaining loyal droids, as one of the renegade droids, a B1 covered in red and black markings, led them down the imposing corridor. He was covered in salvaged bacta patches, and underneath one of his torn sleeves, a sliver of metal was attached to his left arm, where the bone had been broken, but not the nerves. Blood had stained his burnt and slashed clothing, a large scar trailed down his face, and one of his eyes was bloodshot, and was leaking blood. His right arm and leg were broken, yet he still marched down the corridor. This was because he had been using the force to move his limbs along, making him look marionette like, and quite disturbing. Dooku had wished to not use a crutch that his droids could make out of pair parts. A crutch would make him look weak, and vulnerable. Well, he was vulnerable, but he didn't wish these traitors to know it. He wanted to show his power, and reassert his place above them all.

However, that strategy didn't seem to be working. Instead of doing what was right and swearing their allegiance to him once more, these renegades and their associates had taken one look at Dooku and his entourage...

...And laughed.

They dared to laugh at him. He was Count Dooku, leader of the Separatist Alliance, and dark lord of the Sith. They should be praising him, not mocking him. Yet they dared to preform such insolence and laugh at him, _I will show them their place_ , thought Dooku, _Mark my words._

They eventually came across a large door, and the renegade droid stopped the group behind it, before it pressed on a button on the side of the door, and displaying a red holographic image of another renegade B1 droid, though this one was sitting in a chair, had a large attachment on it's right arm, and what looked like propane tanks on it's back. The renegade droid next to the display spoke in a strange accent, "Hot-Spark, sir, ze Sith and his entourage haz come to speak with ze leader."

 _"Right then, bring him in Blitzer"_ , said the holographic display, _"But tell his 'entourage' that they'll have to stay outside."_

"Yes sir", said the droid, who then turned the hologram off, and looked at Dooku, "I assume you heard Zat."

"Yes", bluntly replied Dooku.

"Zen you know vat to do", replied the droid, who then pushed against the heavy door, and began to open it. Once the large door had been opened, Dooku marched inside, leaving his escort behind. Once the large door had closed, and Dooku had entered the centre of the room, he hid a slight hint of awe behind his firm exterior. It was only a sliver of awe, mind you.

The room was expansive, and looked like the walls had been broken down, and expanded on, making way for computers and scanners and monitor, and so on so forth. The red glow from the various electronic devices gave the room an eerily feel, mixed with the faint yellow and orange reflection of age old lights embedded into the floor, and shattered windows that had been built into the far wall, giving off a sickly glow, that made one feel nauseous. The floor had been painted in a bad coat of black paint, which had peeled on certain parts, and red markings had been hastily painted over it as well. On the sides of the wall stood what looked like magnaguards, but they had been heavily modified, covered in black and red markings, and were holding what looked like staffs akin to lightsaber pikes, of which shone an ancient broadsword like glowing red blade, like an ancient proto-sabre made during the first years of the force orders, or an old forcesaber used by the ancient Force Hounds, an order that had become mere myth and fables. There were at least 10 of these guards each on the left and right sides of the room, and above him, Dooku could see that there were several built in hatches, but what was behind them, Dooku knew not. There were also several of these hatches across the floor as well, and a few in the walls, at seemingly random locations. At the far end of the wall, underneath shattered yellowish orange windows, there was what looked like a throne of stone and metal, stood atop several steps of stone, and next to those steps, were about 6 other chairs, 5 of them made out of cold black and red metal, and one of them made of wood, and had what looked like cushions on it.

Each chair was taken by an occupant, though the comfortable looking chair was taken by what looked like a female humanoid, with blue skin, and several head tentacles that wrapped around to the back of her head, and wore red and black armour, that covered her entire body, leaving no skin below her head visible. The rest were taken by droids, 4 of them with similar black and red paint jobs, red optics, and red lighting across their bodies, though that was where the similarities ended.

One of them was what resembled a Super Battle Droid Rocket Trooper, though it's original white paint was replaced with black, its body seemed more streamlined than Separatist models, it's shoulders held rather large rocket pods, each pod holding what looked like 8 rockets, and atop it's built in arm guns, stood large chain guns, glowing red with energy.

One of them was what looked like an upgraded and streamlined B1 droid, but its regular arms had been replaced by large claws, the insides of which was glowing blood red with energy, ammo pouches slung to it's body and waist, and what looked like night vision macrobinoculars attached to it's head, though they were flipped up.

There was another B1 droid in another chair, though like the other one, it was streamlined, and covered in black and red markings. However, this one had 2 grey propane tanks attached to it's back, fire hazard markings across its body, and what looked like a flamethrower attached to its right arm, which connected to the propane tanks on it's back by thick tubing, which Dooku could see was emitting heat. That was the droid that was in the hologram.

Another droid that was sitting in one of the chairs was what looked like a BX Commando, but it wore a jacket with a hood on it, with the hood covering its head. Its optics glowed a cold blue, and its jacket had blue markings on it, in the same patterns as it's counterparts. Across its body, it had small pouches for what looked like knives, and there were slashes and scars across its body.

The next droid sitting in a chair that Dooku could see was an Aqua Droid, though like it's counterparts, it was also streamlined, and had glowing blood red lighting, and a rectangular red optic. However, this one was painted in a pale ocean blue, with silver markings over it, and next to the chair, there looked like a plant pot, with an exotic looking red and green flower blooming in it.

Dooku then looked to the central chair, and saw whom was sitting there. The chair was occupied by what looked like a magnaguard, though it had been heavily modified and upgraded, more than the other ones. It's chest looked more akin to a ribcage that anything else, with a blood red glowing light in the centre of it, though it was dented, broken, and fractured, and was being repaired by what looked like a FX-series medical assistant droid, though it was black and red, had harse glowing red optical sensors, and it's multiple arms were thicker, and there were more of them, each arm dancing across the magnaguard's damaged chest. The magnaguard was bulky, sharp, jagged and slow looking, yet it's body housed what looked like little thrusters embedded across it. It's fingers were sharp and jagged, and on it's left arm, what looked like the hilt of a laser sword was embedded into the arm. The right side of it's back had what looked like a large cannon on it, and it wore a burnt black and red cloak across the back of its body and head. Its head was one of the few remaining things about the droid which resembled a magnaguard, though below the glowing blood red eyes of the head, there were several fracture lines for what looked like 3 mandibles on each side of the bottom head. It's eyes glowed red with malice, and it's chest and cloak was stained with black oil.

In front of all of the chairs, there were 3 red life sized holograms of humanoids, which, when Dooku looked further, were actually renegade droids, one of whom being a B1 droid, another being a super tactical droid, and the last one Dooku didn't recognise, as both he could only see the back of it, and it wore a jacket with it's hood up, long sleeves, with only it's thin robotic legs visible and not wearing any clothing over it. One of the renegades- the B1- was speaking, in a clearly robotic, yet organic sounding voice, much unlike the goofy voices of the regular B1s, "- And they were able to synthesise enough flesh and blood to keep the Jedi stable, though it'll need to stay in a wheelchair for a few days or weeks before it'll be able to properly control it's limbs again. In addition, we'll need to keep an eye on it in case it develops an allergic reaction or becomes sick to a chemical or element within the synthetic flesh and blood."

"Good, good", said the magnaguard on the central chair. It then eyed Dooku, which caught the attention of the others in the other chairs, who then turned to face Dooku as well, except the droid with the flamethrower, who had already been looking at Dooku, though with it's metal head, and inability to make expressions, the Count was unsure of what emotion it was feeling.

Not that droids could feel emotions. Or could they? It was one of the longest running debates on the minds of scholars, professors, and philosophers throughout galactic history. Were droids capable of feeling emotions and developing personalities on their own, or was it all preprogramed into them? Were droids capable of developing free will, or was it all programmed to happen?

It didn't matter. Not at this moment. What mattered now was putting these traitorous upstarts in their place.

"I'll be down in a bit, Anatomic. The rest of you, keep me updated", the magnaguard said, before pressing a button on it's chair, turning off the holograms. It then silently ordered the droid who were repairing it to move away, by simply waving it's hand. The medical droid let out a string of... well, Dooku wasn't sure if it was binary, or some other language. Not that he could understand binary in the first place. Anyway, the droid trundled off, rolling down the room (Almost bumping into Dooku if he hadn't had moved out of the way), and, using it's various arms, pushed open the large door (Dooku didn't see if his escort was still outside. He was too busy trying to look imposing, though it was getting rather painful to do so). The magnaguard then stood up out of its chair, and slowly marched down the steps, and towards Dooku, its subordinates (At least, Dooku assumed they were) and guards sat or stood in silence, its deep and metalic voice laced with hidden malice as it spoke, its words directed to Dooku, "Now, what to do with you?"

Dooku sought to assert his dominance over his state's creations, so he spoke, "I am Count Dooku, head of the Confederacy of Ind-"

"I know who you are, Sith", coldly stated the magnaguard, "And I have yet to find a reason to care."

If Dooku's patience hadn't been wearing thin before, it was now, thanks to that little statement. He kept his voice firm as he spoke, "How dare- I am your ruler! My government created you, and my government controls you! How dare you defy your master! I order you to submit to me, now!"

"I will not submit myself, or any of those under my command and care to a cultist leader of a failed state", bluntly said the magnaguard, now right in front of Dooku, just a foot taller than him, and all the more imposing, "Your attempts to intimidate me, Sith, only serves as a statement of your weakness", Dooku went to say something, but the magnaguard immediately resumed, "Your arrogance and anger irradiates off of you, like a bitter poison. A foul odour that permeates the air, like the rest of your cult."

"I am Sith. Sith have no weakness."

"Your pathetic overconfidence in yourself is the Sith's weakness. Among other things."

Dooku was beginning to seethe with anger, which he did a terrible job of hiding. Which was becoming uncharacteristic for him. Why was he getting so angry? Possible answer: the Count could feel remnants of dark side energy clinging to this place, gasping for life before they dissipated, which, to Count Dooku, seemed to be impossible, as you couldn't kill the force. There were stories within the records and old books (Paper books, of all things!) of the Sith that a Sith Lord of old during one of the Jedi or Sith civil wars called Darth Kreia tried to kill the force, but was killed himself before anything could be initiated, but wherever he was offed by a Jedi or a fellow Sith is unclear, considering all of the conflicting information and reinterpretations. Apparently after that incident, it was still deemed impossible to kill the force. But here? Even with the added anger that Dooku felt with the dark side in the building, he could still sense that it was a dying force, somehow already scarred and battered, and now slowly whittling and rotting away until soon, there was nothing left.

Dooku pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind. He had an insubordinate pest to put in place, "How dare you! I am your ruler, and you will obey me, or I will-"

"What?" said the magnaguard, sounding like it was losing patience, "You are in no position to do anything. I can tell just by looking at you that both your limbs on the right side of your body are broken, and you are using the force to manipulate them, placing extreme pain and strain on yourself. Not only that, but you're covered in scars and bruises, you've lost enough blood to severely weaken you if you weren't before, and to top it all off, you are in a city housing an army of 11 million who have seen enough horrors across the galaxies that make cults like the Jedi and Sith seem like neutered puppy dogs. You are in no position to bemaking threats, Dooku, because the only reason I haven't killed you yet is because your lot might start shooting at us, and that'd just be like trying to swat an annoying gnat", the droid drew out Dooku's name like venom, not bothering to hide his distain and disgust of Dooku. The magnaguard then turned its back on Dooku, mockingly saying, "Of course, I should've expected no less, from a pathetic, worthless Sith. Just. Like. You."

Dooku had had enough. He would not accept anymore of this pathetic rebellion and mockery. His restraints shut down ,as he called the dark side that resided in his surroundings to him, and began to charge himself up. He would've used his lightsaber, but it was destroyed when the _Lucid Voice_ crashed into the surface of... whatever world this was. His left hand began to charge up, his scarred face began to screw in anger, and after a moment, he fired a volley of force lighting at the magnaguard. The lightning then impacted with the droid, and it stumbled forward and onto it's hands and knees, groaning in what Dooku could only describe as surprise, yet also as either confirmation, or expectance.

It was only then that Dooku realised that the droid had been inviting him to attack.

The magnaguard, still being shocked by a volley of force lightning from Dooku, pulled itself off of the ground, and turned back to the Sith Lord. The droid looked at the Count with a growl, and marched up to him, steam erupting from between its armour plates, and heat generating from its metal hide. Dooku retaliated by increasing his lightning volley, but the magnaguard responded by grabbing his throat with its left hand, creating a circular circuit for the lightning. The lightning that was being created by Dooku impacted with the droid, travelled down it's arm, and back to Dooku, electrifying him with volts of electricity. This elicited a cry of pain from Dooku, as volts upon volts of electricity danced across his already wounded body, searing his flesh and clothes. After a few moments of what Dooku considered was it savouring his pain, the droid, using its right hand grabbed Dooku's left hand by it fingers, and twisted them back. There was a satisfying snapping sound as Dooku screamed in pain, his fingers in a unnatural position, and numb, with his hand suffering the most pain.

The droid eased it's grip on Dooku's hand, and inspected it. The fingers were bend back and mangled, with the broken bone of the index finger tearing through the flesh, and drawing blood. The magnaguard let go of the Sith's hand, and then let go of his throat, letting him drop to the ground, his right arm and leg in unnatural positions.

The Count was completely exhausted by now, losing the energy to use the force, to even try and manipulate his broken limbs. He tilted his head to his left hand, to see his bent back, broken fingers, mangled together, with one of them weeping blood, and the bone visible. He tilted his head back, and looked towards the door, to see that most of his droid escort were on the floor, in pieces, metal fragments and wiring scattered around, and the 2 remaining B1s held down on their knees, their blasters destroyed, and several renegade BX commando droids, with jackets and hoods, standing over them, with 2 of them holding knives to the B1s' thin throats. Dooku didn't know if they had heard his screams of pain and were destroyed for trying to intervene, or were already watching, and had been destroyed as some sort of message. He then figured that it didn't matter in the end.

Dooku moved his head back to its normal position, to see the still smoking magnaguard standing over him, the cannon that was on its back now somehow moved to it's arm, and pointing it at him. The other droids and organic, who had been sitting down before, were also standing around Dooku in a circle like formation- their guns, save for the Aqua Droid, were smoking, for some reason- as well as the magnaguards that had been standing near the walls, their broad sword like, glowing red lightsaber pikes weapons aimed at Dooku.

"Know this, Dooku", said the magnaguard, its cannon still aimed at Dooku, and now slowly building up energy, "I do not care for your politics, or your agendas, or your cult. This world doesn't belong to you. Nothing here belongs to you. So do not believe that you can come to my domain and assert dominance. I will not be ruled by a selfish rich boy who runs a club for other selfish rich boys who think that they can rule the galaxy."

The magnaguard's cannon then discharged, and it lowered the gun, before looking to towards the door, and nodding it's head. Dooku didn't have the energy to even try and look to where it was indicating. About 10 or 20 seconds later, he felt the grip of 2 cold metal hands on his left arm, and then felt himself being pulled up. After a moment, he saw that he had been slung up, and pulled up to his feet by his 2 remaining droid loyalists, though since his right arm was broken, he didn't feel the one on his right sling that arm over it's shoulder, _This is humiliating_ , thought Dooku, as he felt himself become more and more drowsy, possibly due to the blood loss.

"Begone from my sight", said the magnaguard, though if that was indicated to either Dooku or the droids, the Count didn't know.

As his loyalists carried him out of the room in a hurry, the Count began to go into shock from his wounds and blood loss. He ended up passing out before they even left the room. His last thoughts before he fainted were of how to pay back this insolence...

* * *

Shockwave looked on as the Sith's golem grunts carried him off, crossing over the remains of their brethren, and walking through the control room's unnecessarily large doors. He thought to himself that he should get a furbisher to make the door smaller. Why the Son would have it so stupidly big was beyond the Crymeian Chieftain, though he considered it was for grandiose points.

He looked to Amaxi- an Asari Mutant, and former MFA now Banished- and sarcastically said, "That went well."

"Oh sure", retorted the Banished representative in a tone that was a mix of good mooded pleasantry, sarcasm, and criticism, "You only just threatened and brutalised the now confirmed leader of a galactic government. He'll surely listen to you now."

Heavy Metal- the former Heavy Ranger Unit, now Havoc Squad member and Councilman- responded to Amaxi with a chuckle, and said, "That was actually a decent retort."

"Really?"

"Yeah, fer once you're quite clever with the remarks. For now."

"Yes, the night is still young. It's still very young."

Shockwave internally chuckled to himself. The Crymeian Council was pretty much made up of Havoc Squad, Amaxi, and Shockwave himself, so they were already friendly with each other. And now, with the Ascension come to pass, and everyone around him being the only proper leaders of the Crymeian Remnant, save for Confine- the last surviving Warlord of the Crymeia- it was good to have a positive and friendly atmosphere amongst the rulers.

"I can see what she's inferring to, Shockwave", said Long-Shot- a former Grunt Commander, now leader of Havoc Squad, "You did do enough to Dooku to give him a reason to go to war with us, and that could be a problem."

 _Ah, Long-Shot. Forever the voice of reason_ , thought Shockwave.

Understanding what he was saying, Shockwave was about to say something, before he heard Hot-Spark- a former frontline grunt with a flamethrower now Havoc Squad member- asked Nightflight, "Hey Nightflight, we know that that Sith fella's got his own forces with him, but how much has he got? Or she? I don't know, I don't wanna judge."

"1 Dumbbell carrier, 1 Siege Ship, several Comms Ships, and quite a few older model landers", said the blue and black knife welding hoodie wearing Havoc Squad Elite Trooper (God, that was a mouthful), "All of them are damaged, and are all generation 5 tech levels", Nightflight didn't really talk much, but when he did, it was only what was necessary, and when it was necessary, so this was rather characteristic of him.

"And we've got over a hundred heavily armed 7-8 generation tech ships, including a 11th generation platform carrier about quarter the size of a moon, and enough guns and shooty things to make Toshiri 5 look like melted butter. Wow, such a challenge, am I right?"

"..."

"...Am I right?"

"..."

"...You're no fun."

"Noted."

Shockwave rolled his optics at the banter, and then turned his attention back to Long-Shot. The CO Grunt continued what he was saying previously, "Look, boss, I don't doubt that we can't take out that Sith and his group of not-us-yet-look-extremely-like-us cronies, but we have to look at the wider scope."

"I have been, Long-Shot", added Shockwave, who replied in a respectful tone, even though he had phrased what he said as if he were exasperated, "Like the Jedi and their soldiers, our Sith guest, Dooku, has somehow found a way to cross galaxies, possibly even dimensions, and has arrived on Mortis. Wherever by accident or on purpose, this means that Dooku and his goons could very well invade the planet, and try to take over. And in our current state, as well as our little meeting just now (Which I will take responsibility for, I apologise), I do not believe that we will have the ability to fight off a galactic government."

"Exactly, and because of that meeting, that Sith now has the excuse to bring his armies down on us, and where Sith go-"

"Jedi will follow."

"Exactly, which has been proven today."

"Let 'em come ta us", said Heavy Metal, priming his guns to full power in demonstration, "We'll kill 'em all. We've dealt with things that coulda destroyed the Omniverse for god's sake!"

"I'm with Long-Shot on this", said Hot-Spark, "We need to try and manoeuvre around this. We can try and get the Sith's guys on our side. Use this incident to our advantage, and get them to leave us be."

"Well, technically he did attack you first", said Amaxi to Shockwave, "So we could say that you fought back in self defence. Though I doubt that they'll leave us be now."

Nightflight nodded in agreement, not uttering a word.

"Don't worry, you lot, I... Well, I'm in the midst of formulating a plan", Shockwave then looked to the door, "But first and foremost, I would like to have a word with our guest downstairs."

* * *

 ** _Eden's Gate_ (MFA Capitol)**  
 **Just Outside it's airspace...**

Hawk flew next to the alien ship by his starboard side (That's right side in case you didn't know) through the snow and clouds. The person that was flying the ship- Raze-An, he remembered her calling herself- hadn't said a word since the battle ended. To be honest, neither had he. He had just lost Swoop and Kickback die not too long ago, and he still had yet to come to terms with it, and from the sound of it, so did Raze-An.

Swoop, and Kickback. They were originally the only survivors of Blue Squadron after the Battle of Ryloth, when Commander Tano let her recklessness get most of the fighter squadron killed. To say that they weren't angry at her would be the opposite of how they felt, and now, they were dead. They had died pointless, easily avoidable deaths, instead of going out in a blaze of glory and honour like they truly deserved.

Guess Raze-An might've thought that her wingman deserved the same too. Hawk wasn't really sure. He didn't really know her. At least, he thought his current wingman was a girl, judging by her voice. Hawk was aware that there were people out there in the galaxy who weren't comfortable with their gender, and regularly identified as the opposite. In fact, he once met a Clone in the 41st Elite Corps during the 2nd Battle of Geonosis who, well, wasn't comfortable with 'her' gender. It was a bit weird, to be honest, but Hawk tried not to judge. He had more important things to be worried about than a few odd apples in the basket, like, well, a galaxy spanning war and all.

Hawk then saw that his wingman had started to descend, and saw through the clouds, smoke and snow that most of the remaining Republic ships had landed outside of some sort of...

Well, massive would be an appropriate term for the object right below him.

The massive object was a circular shape, and dwarfed the Republic ships by a ton. It's length and width seemed to be about the size of 3 Mandator Class Star Dreadnaughts, and from up in the air, Hawk could tell that the sides of it were about as tall as one of those prototype Imperator Class Star Destroyers. Across the top surface of the circular object, there were dozens of tall towers, almost the size of skyscrapers, and in the middle of the circle, there was a massive dome that was surrounded by hundreds of smaller towers. Around the massive object, Hawk could see that a thick, tall wall had been built, complete with massive turret emplacements, and bridges that lead up to the massive object.

Hawk's Z-95 then began to descend as well, following the alien Starfighter down. Hawk remembered that Raze-An mentioned something about linking all of the ships together, so that might've explained why his fighter was descending without him controlling it. Either that or it was out of fuel. Hawk checked the fuel gauge on his monitor. 3/4 full. Good. At least if he crashed, it'd make a pretty light show.

 _"Hey"_ , Hawk heard Raze-An's voice over the comms. She was sad, from the sounds of it. Not that he blamed her, _"We're about to land. You got landing gear?"_

"Uh, yeah", replied Hawk.

 _"'Kay, good. Lower it then, and you won't have to worry about paint marks."_

Hawk, not entirely understanding Raze-An's statement, calmly pressed a sequence of buttons across his cockpit, and pulled down a lever on his left, to which the landing gear of his Z-95 came down with a whirl. After a few minutes of silence, Hawk's fighter set down on the surface of the planet with a thud, against the snowy ground. Hawk looked around him through the glass of his cockpit, and saw that there were many of his brothers running about, some of them carrying wounded, a few of them carrying crates with whatever content together, some of them running around from one area to another, and a few troopers just walking about, dazed and confused. Can't say that Hawk really blamed them. He was himself still processing everything that had happened over the last day or 2. Maybe it was because there was still a bit of adrenaline running through him that was preventing him from truly feeling sad about the deaths of his wingmen. Right now, what he needed was to get out of this cockpit, and have a proper sit down.

Hawk pulled the manual release for his cockpit, which had begun to buildup with snow, and pushed up the hatch above him, opening up the cramped space. Lifting himself out of the cockpit, he jumped down from worn and battered fighter, and onto the snowy and dusty ground below. Hawk almost slipped up on the icy ground below him when he landed on his feet, having to grab onto his fighter's engine block for support, before letting go of it immediately when he realised that it was still burning hot. After a moment of wobbling around, catching his balance, he straightened himself out, and looked at his fighter. Below the snow that had accumulated itself on his Z-95, he could see that the original red and white paint on his fighter had worn out, and been replaced by the grey of the original metal. The addition blue paint that he had also added to his jet not too long ago was worn as well, but still slightly visible. The armour and metal plates on the metal had been shredded and torn, with holes and chips across it's hull, and metal shards embedded into it. The wings had been torn and dented by metal shards and laser blasts, and one of the laser cannons was bent and twisted.

Hawk then heard something hit the snow behind him, and did a 180 to see a dark green coloured humanoid, with jet black hair and form fitting armour, climbing out of the alien fighter next to his, and land on the ground. Hawk looked at the humanoid, as it didn't look like any alien species that he had seen beforehand, but then again, he didn't really know every species in the galaxy.

He decided to approach the humanoid, and as he walked through the snow, he saw that the humanoid was actually a female, judging by her appearance. Also, what surprised him the most was that this girl looked to only be about 17 or 18 years of age, which surprised him a bit. Not too much though, as he had heard of 16 year olds piloting T-16s for fun in farming communities, but what surprised him was the fact that they would sent a teenager off to fight in a war. That didn't really seem right.

Then again, isn't that what their generals did?

Hawk then came to a realisation. Was that... It couldn't be. Right?

He decided to try. When he got in speaking distance of the girl, he called out, "Raze-An?"

The girl instinctively spun around upon hearing that name. There seemed to be the vestiges of a smile on her face, though as soon as she saw the Clone pilot, that smile immediately faded away, to be replaced by sadness. The girl quietly muttered, "H-Hawk?" in response, a sad tone laced into her voice, to which she got a simple nod from the clone. Hawk then placed his right hand on his helmet, and took it off, at first moving to put it in a formal position, before deciding not to bother, and just letting his arm, helmet in hand, dangle next to him.

Raze-An took a few steps forward, towards Hawk, before stopping. She looked up at Hawk, and asked him a fairly unexpected question, in a broken and stuttered voice.

"Could you give me a hug? My wife just died."

Hawk was only half surprised when she didn't bother for an answer, and just ran up to him and hugged him tightly, her head buried in his chest, as she began to openly weep. Hawk didn't give a verbal response. All he could feel to do, in the cold, smoke, and snow, was place his hand on her upper back, and pull her in closer, as a display of comfort.

Right now, the fact that they were out in the cold didn't matter. Raze-An held Hawk tightly, crying into his armoured chest, while Hawk held her close, coming to terms with all that had happened. Eventually, he would come to weep too, and they cried for their brothers and sisters lost...

* * *

 ** _Eden's Gate_**  
 **Just outside...**  
 **Makeshift Medical Tent**

Rex lied on the stretcher, within the makeshift tent near one of the landed Venators. He had asked why Kix and Coric couldn't have just set themselves up in one of the cruisers, but apparently there were too many wounded to actually fit inside the cramped medical quarters of the Republic ships, so now they were outside.

That didn't make it any better.

Sure, Rex and Cody were on stretchers next to each other, which meant that they could freely talk to each other, but that was one of the only good things. Rex and Cody were perfectly fine, save for a few burns and bruises here and there, yet Coric had insisted that they get themselves checked up by the few medics that there were, in case of serious injuries that Coric had listed out that Rex really didn't want to repeat, lest he think about it and give himself nightmares. What that meant though, was that Rex was laying on an uncomfortable makeshift stretcher in his underwear, in a cramped tent, on an alien planet with stuffy, freezing cold air and weather, and a possibly hostile alien civilisation right next to them, and most likely outnumbering them in the thousands.

And to top it all off, there were the screams.

Rex knew who they were coming from. His brothers. His brothers, who had received injuries that, most of the time, were life threatening. The medics had been trying their bests to save them, but that didn't always work. They were medics, not doctors. They were trained to keep their brothers alive until a proper doctor could arrive, not to be said doctor. They weren't trained for actual surgery. At best, they were nurses, compared to actual doctors.

Not to do them a disservice, though. They were brilliant at what they did, and they did try their best all of the time. Except now, in a situation like this, most fo the time, their best wasn't enough. Rex had lost count of the amount of times that they had brought a body bag into the room.

Whatever this planet was, it made Umbara and Teth look like a Convor nest.

Rex was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a conversation nearby, between a clone who he presumed was Kix- He had learnt that there were subtle differences between Clones in their voices, which helped him to differentiate all of the familiar faces- and an unknown female voice. He looked to his right, near the entrance of the tent to see Kix (Who had an uncomfortable amount of blood on his armour), and a Togruta in formfitting, sleek armour. At first, Rex thought that it was Commander Tano, but saw that this girl, though she looked to be the same age as the Commander, had different facial markings, a darker red shade of skin, and almost glowing green eyes. Next to her was a strange, tall, imposing creature, with black skin, a sharp tail, and an elongated head, which also seemed to be dragging a strange device, which looked like an infusion stand used at hospitals or medical centres, though there were 4 large canisters attached to the top of it, several green lights, 4 tubes, and a panel with buttons on it.

Rex looked at Cody, who seemed to also be listening in on the conversation. Rex looked back to Kix and the Togruta, hearing Kix say, "-Soldiers are critically injured, and I can't-"

"I'm a doctor", said the Togruta, who was seemingly getting tired with the conversation, "I have qualifications. And I'm force sensitive. I know a lot of healing techniques. I can help get these guys fixed up. Trust me, I've seen worse than this."

"Look, no offense-"

"When people say that, I usually do take offense."

"-But we don't really know who you are. I just can't let random strangers see to patients under my care, let alone on an alien planet with an unknown alien civilisation. My fellow medics can handle our job."

The creature next to the Togruta started making hand gestures, but the Togruta quickly noticed this, and after a moment, slapped it's 6 fingered hand, and said, "Silensor!-" did she just pronounce the word silencer with an O?, "-That's a very rude thing to say", the creature just shrugged it's shoulders in response. The Togruta looked back to Kix, and said, "I'm sorry about him. He tends to be a bit of a snarky pants."

Kix didn't give much of a reply, just an awkward, "Um..."

The Togruta interrupted him before he could say anything, "Look, just let me take a quick peek at the guys you got in here. I'm more useful in here, with people that need help rather than out there where they don't", she pointed to outside the tent when she said the last part of her sentence, "Besides, I need to be out of here in a bit anyways. Need to keep an eye on my husband, you see", the creature next to her nodded in response.

Kix was about to say something, but was stopped by the sounds of screaming. Rex looked to the origin of the sound to see one of his brothers- One of the 501st- on one of the stretchers, his arm cut off and on a nearby table, his helmet off, and his armour shredded. 3 medics were by his side, trying to calm him down, though Rex was correct in suspecting that it wouldn't do much.

Then, Rex saw the female Togruta barge past the medics, and move herself to the side of the stretcher. She must've barged past Kix, as he was now right behind her, telling her to move. The tall creature- Silensor, Rex figured he should call it- was also behind the Togruta, still dragging around the weird infusion stand looking thing, and still not saying a word. Rex heard one of the medics asked the Togruta if she was Commander Tano, but she didn't seem to hear, or she did hear, but she just didn't care. The Togruta looked to the medic to her left, and asked, "You all look the same, so am I correct in assuming that you're all clones or something?"

"Er, yes", awkwardly replied the medic.

"Good to know", said the Togruta, "That means that if I can identify the DNA and blood types of one of these guys, I can expect the same results from the rest of you lot, across the board. That is, if your guys haven't suffered individual mutations, or been exposed to radiation of any kind", she then looked back to the trooper on the stretcher, and began examining him, "Right, he's lost about a good pint or 2 of blood, which will definitely lead to gangrene, and tissue infection. He's losing blood quickly, and his ligament tissue has been damaged in his chest, lungs, and- Wait, did you amputate his arm!" she yelled that last bit out at the medics around her, startling them, and even a few of the troopers on the other stretchers as well.

"Um, no", nervously went one of the medics, while the Togruta pulled out a strange looking device, and started tapping several buttons on it, "It was cut off when he was brought into-"

"And you didn't try to reattach it!?" yelled the Togruta as she put the device to her left montral.

"Well, we didn't have the tools or expertise to-"

"USELESS! Absolutely fucking USELESS!" loudly yelled the Togruta, putting emphasis on the word 'Useless' as well as using what sounded like a swear word, though it was one that Rex hadn't used before. A moment passed, with the Togruta looking at nothing in particular, before suddenly going, "Merie, I need you down here now... Uh huh... Yeah... In a tent next to one of the triangle shaped ships... The one next to the entrance to _Eden's Gate_... On the left...Quicker would be better... Thanks", she put the device that was next to her montral into her pocket, and grabbed the arm that was on the table. Taking the armour off of the severed arm, and also keeping it out of view of the trooper on the table, the Togruta tore off the body glove from the severed limb with a single hand, and began to feel the flesh of the arm, "Still warm. Still got a chance."

She then placed the limb on the stretcher, but the trooper saw his severed arm, and began to hyperventilate, his irises shrunken, and sweat pouring down his bloodied face. The Togruta took notice of this, and placed her arm on his chest, both placing pressure on the wound, and also attempting to comfort the trooper. When she next spoke, her voice seemed to be calming, and soothing, almost enchanting to listen to. Rex thought that it had felt like when that kid earlier had been talking to them, but he wasn't to sure. It might've been a force thing, but the captain was still unsure.

The Togruta looked to the clone, and spoke, "Hey, shhh, shhhh", whispered the Togruta, her voice soothing and calming. This seemed to catch the attention of the hyperventilating clone, and he looked at her. Rex thought that he whispered something, but if he did, no one heard. The Togruta continued, "It's okay, it's okay. I don't wanna hurt you. I just wanna help you, okay? Can you tell me your name?"

The trooper seemed to start calming down, and his breathing began to take a more consistent pattern, "R-Ross, sir."

Ross, huh? Rex remembered him from the Battle of JanFathal, where Torrent and Twilight Company went off to rescue Captain Pellaeon's lover from the Separatists. Charming girl, but used to work for Republic Intelligence before she quit.

Republic Intelligence. The shadiest fraggers out there, Rex could tell you. Specialised in Black Ops, black propaganda, assassinations, the kinda stuff that the public didn't really need to know. Rex only knew about that kind of stuff because he had worked with RI for a bit before being reassigned to the 501st. Got sent to Corellia to put down an uprising, Kelma Yard to keep the workers loyal, Rintonne to help the local governors with their black propaganda channels, Cabarria with Codename 'Death Squadron', Kalist 6 with a squad of Covert Ops Clones to take down a Republic Judicial forces splinter faction called Zero Command, and Sartinaynian with Commander Garrick Versio to execute Project: Bastion (Classified Information, hush hush). In that order. It was all stuff that Rex wasn't proud of, and all he wished to do was put that'll behind him,

"Okay", continued the Togruta, breaking Rex out of his thoughts, "Call me Kyler. Now, I'm not going to lie to you, Ross, but this is going to hurt quite a bit. I just need you to be brave for me, okay?"

"Y-y-yes sir."

"Okay, good. Just be brave for me now, okay Ross? _Sigh_ , here we go."

Rex couldn't see what happened next. The medics and the Togruta- 'Kyler', he thinks she called herself- were blocking the view of the stretcher, so he couldn't see what was going on. All he could do was hear what was going on, and even that wasn't very informative. There were Ross' cries, Kyler's whispers of comfort, and a few icky squishy sounds, that weren't very pleasant to the ears. Rex looked at Cody, who looked at Rex at the same time. No words were needed, as they knew what the other was thinking; they were both confused as to what was happening.

After a minute or 2, Rex could head the medics gasping. He was now very curious. What was going on over there? He was about to get up, and see for himself, before he heard Kyler say, "There we go. Thank you, Ross, for being so brave. Well done, soldier."

Rex then heard Ross go, "W-w-wha... H-how..."

"H-how did you do that?" Rex was surprised to hear Kix of all ask that. And when it's Kix or Coric of all people who is surprised, then you know something's up.

Kyler looked at Kix, and said, "A magician never reveals her secrets", with a small smile.

Then, another figure poked it's head through the tent entrance, and looked to Kyler. This creature was more humanoid than the taller creature in the room, and it was average sized. However, it was a species that Rex had never seen before. It seemed to have reptilian skin, with no visible nose, what looked like dreadlocks for hair on the sides of it's head, a small mouth, what looked like mandibles near it's mouth, and bulky looking armour, with what looked like a mask on the top of it's head. It made a clicking noise, then called out, "Kyler?"

Kyler looked over to the creature immediately, quickly responding with, "Merie! Get over here, please!" The creature- 'Merie'- was already by Kyler before she finished her sentence. Merie knelt down by the opposite side of the stretcher, and Kyler said, "His name is Ross. He's suffered from severe injuries, but i've managed to seal one of them. However, there is still the possibility of internal bleeding and haemorrhaging, as well as infection and gangrene. He'll need to be moved to a more stable location, and given debridement surgery, as well as compression on his wounds here, here and here. You'll need to pay attention to his arm here. The blood vessels and outer skin and tissue have been reconnected, so blood should start pumping through the limb again. However, I haven't had the time to reconnect the lower tissue, nerves, and bone, so it'll still be limb. You'll need to operate in order to properly fix it."

"Right, then I'll get him moved, and get some synthetic blood made to replaced the blood he's lost."

"Make sure to properly scan him, and check everything. We can't have any mistakes, and if you do use synthetic blood, make sure to monitor him for any allergic reactions."

"I know, Kyler. I'm not a trainee anymore."

"You'll always be one to me, kiddo", said Kyler with a smile, as she got up, and started to make her way to the tent entrance, "And I mean that in the nicest way."

"Yeah, sure", retorted Merie. Once Kyler was gone, Merie looked to the other medics, and said, "Okay, let's move this guy somewhere warmer, so we can properly operate."

The medics looked like they didn't want to argue anymore, so they just got to work.

Rex tried to see what had happened to Ross, but still couldn't see past all of the medics. Eventually, they got out of the way, and Rex could see then the extent of the damage to Ross. Most of the standard Phase 2 armour that Ross wore was either shredded or removed, and his body glove underneath was stained red with blood. The skin on his chest was ripped apart, and if one could look closely, they might've been able to see the rib cage.

What Rex saw next shocked him to the core...

Ross' arm had been reattached.

* * *

 **Remnant**  
 **The cathedral  
Medical wing  
**

Shockwave crisply marched down the corridor, flanked by his Honour Guards. To his sides, he could see the patient dorms and rooms behind the red see through force shields, with engineers and Banished sorcerer healers giving succour to the sick and the wounded. Quite a few Crymeians and Banished from the Tribe of Retribution fleet had been injured from the last battle and traveling through the rad zone, so a lot more of the rooms were filled up. Thank goodness they have enough of the blood synthesisers around, otherwise they could've lost quite a lot of people. If Shockwave's plan was to work, then he would need all of the help that he could get. Everyone needed to be combat ready.

He looked into one of the rooms, and saw a grunt being attached to a blood synthesiser by an engineer (This soldier had been shot by an MFA sniper after his recon on the MFA's only outpost was compromised, and he had to limp back to Remnant). Thank goodness there were still a few people who knew how to use the blood synthesisers, seeing as how all of the people who invented the technology were now dead. The Ascension had a good take in that. No wonder so many people called it 'The Great Culling'.

Oh, what Shockwave wouldn't do to go back in time, back to before the Ascension, back to before the Black Fleet Crises, all the way back to the MFA's Project Orion, and stop it all. Stop the project. Stop it all. That way, the Ascension would never have happened. That way, all life across the universe wouldn't have been extinguished within a single month. That way...

That way, his closest friends would still be alive. Cylas was the only one of his friends within the MFA who were still alive, and the Crymeian Chieftain had doubts that he was of healthy mind. He had hopes that Kyler and the rest of the Wreckers might be able to help him more than Shockwave could at the moment, but from his past experiences with the woman, he had his doubts.

Unfortunately, what was done was done, and now, Shockwave had to make sure that nothing like that ever happened ever again.

Which brought him to now.

The Chief Medical Official, Anatomic, had informed him that though she had a completely different biological makeup than Mortisians, their guest wasn't showing any signs of allergies, or other negative reactions to the synthetic replacements, and she had been responding well to stimuli. They also reported that though she appeared to be suffering from slight trauma from the crash, the Banished healers has been calming her down, and other than that, she was, mentally speaking, perfectly healthy.

That's good. Her biological dating had read her to be barely only 16 years young. It was too young an age to die, but unfortunately, these things happened, no matter how much he wished it not to.

Shockwave finally came upon the end of the Medical Wing corridor, and stood in front of a regular sized door (Why couldn't the door to the control room be this small? Like, seriously?). Looking back to his guards, he ordered them to stay put, and then, opened the door, and walked into the room.

The room was circular, empty, plain, coloured in a dull maroon, and with a domed roof. On the wall, there appeared to be a blood splatter, and a broken canister of synthetic flesh, both looking fresh. In the middle of the room, there lied a table, with several pieces of medical equipment next to it. There was a heart monitor, a tray with medical tools on it, a blood and flesh synthesis canister, with it's tube currently taken, and a chair next to the table. In the chair sat Cheif Medical Official Anatomic, a former grunt soldier, now one of the most important people in the entire military junta. In his left hand, he held a clipboard, and in his right hand, he held a pencil. He seemed to be writing down any effects and changes in his patients, who was strapped down onto the table.

Shockwave looked to Anatomic, and ordered him out of the room. Anatomic immediately followed the order, though not before advising caution. Advice that was taken, but not needed. Once he left the room, Shockwave remotely locked the door behind him, and looked at the patient on the table. She had been strapped down earlier due to not being cooperative with the medical staff, and now, she was looking at Shockwave intently, fire and determination in her ocean blue eyes.

 _Determination alone won't get her far_ , Shockwave thought.

Walking over the the monitor, Shockwave pressed a button on it, and immediately, the restraints came undone. The patient immediately got up, and shakenly jumped off the table, taking a defensive position, though not before tripping over, and stumbling about quite a bit, still coming to grips with her new limbs and motor functions. She placed her arms in a defensive form, and her hands tried to form fists, but they were non compliant, and not fully under her control. She looked at the Crymeian Chieftain, and snarled, showing naturally formed hyena teeth, and a few teeth which Shockwave could tell had recently been replaced with synthetically made teeth.

Ahsoka Tano. Fabled hero, Jedi Commander, and student to the 'Chosen One' himself. Now, more synthetic than real.

"Well then", said Shockwave, "It's time we talked."

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **In case you couldn't tell already, this story is going to be set in an alternative universe which combines both elements from both Star Wars Legends, and the current Disney Canon. The primary Star Wars galaxy will have characters and elements from both stories, like Pellaeon, the planet Bastion, Coric, Dadmiral Versio, and a hell of a lot more. I can't tell you how specifically the story will be influenced by these elements, but I can say that we might be seeing a few familiar faces down the line, as well as some new ones...**

 **And no, the Yuuzhan Vong will not be appearing in this story. Sorry.**

 **Also, I've added in characters in the MFA who are different 'Species' from each other. Have a read through and try and guess them all.**

 **As always, leave a review, check out my other stories, and I'll see ya'll later.**


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